Godzilla: The Dawn of a New Day
by Mr. Anonymous 2000
Summary: Book Three of the Monster Wars trilogy. King Ghidorah's assault has left the Earth in ruins and now he prepares to deal the final blow. Humanity's last hope lies with its former foe, the King of the Monsters for now, the final battle has begun.
1. Chapter 1

This tale that you will soon read is but one of many. And there are, indeed, many. These tales are written to chronicle an age that began in 1954, an age that began with the death of the previous. For it was in 1954 that a man named Steven Martin wrote a book called This is Tokyo. In its prologue, he wrote "And thus the Age of Men has ended, for the Age of Monsters… has begun."

GODZILLA: THE MONSTER WARS

Book Three: …The Dawn of a New Day

A tale of the Age of Monsters

By

Juan Garcia.

27Now the house was full of men and women, and all the leaders of the Philistines were there. There were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching while Samson was being mocked. 28Then Samson called out to the Lord and said: "O Lord God, remember me, I pray you, and strengthen me, I pray you, only this once, O God, that I take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."  
29Then Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood. He held one with his right hand, and the other with his left and shouted "Let me die with the Philistines!" 30And he bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell upon all the people who were inside. The number he killed at his death was greater than that he killed in his life.  
The Book of Judges. Chapter 16. Verses 27-30.

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."  
The Book of Revelation. Chapter 21

Prologue

The time that the world was in was called the Monster Wars. With battles raging across the seven continents and all the forces of the planet standing together against the enemy, it was the greatest battle that the Earth had ever faced and would ever face and all that lived knew it. They knew it just as they knew that their planet was on the brink of destruction and there seemed to be nothing that anyone could do to stop it. The human race was helpless to defeat the monster that sought to ravage their world yet they there were those among them that simply would not cede defeat. In fighting for Earth, the humans who ruled it were either too stubborn or too stupid to give up; proof of the latter was seen in what had happened to the woman that had been chosen to save it.

At that, moment the psychic Miki Segeusa, the woman the Elias had charged with saving the world, was hospitalized somewhere in Japanese homeland to heal as per the Elias advice. She was hospitalized there because she had dared enter the mind of King Ghidorah, the destroyer of worlds, and she had paid the price. That was seen in that it had already been a whole week since the failed battle for Washington but there was still no change in her condition. The best doctors on Earth were doing all they could to save her but they couldn't even begin to explain what had happened. What had happened was that she'd suffered no physical injury and yet despite that, she was almost dead. The medical staff had four IVs feeding her Solgell Island Red Water and the Regenerator G-1 gene therapy was still in effect but neither was helping. That was because what affected Miss Segeusa wasn't a malady of the body but of the mind.

Considering that she had suffered this after trying to psychically merge with King Ghidorah in an effort to control his actions, confused doctors suggested that she suffered some kind of psychosomatic illness. That was the only logical explanation and was very likely considering who Segeusa was and what she had tried to do. However, while this was essentially correct, the whole truth ran far deeper. In fact, some of the only people that could understand what had happened would be the victims of demonic possession and the priests that performed the exorcisms.

The truth was that King Ghidorah had entered her mind, the mind of the most powerful human psychic yet born, and had almost destroyed it from the inside out. That seemed impossible and yet the very existence of the monsters that walked the Earth since the Age of Monsters began had been regarded as scientifically impossible. Breaking unbreakable laws, King Ghidorah seemed made to do that. That was because men made the laws of men but the laws of science that were built into the very fabric of Creation, were made by God, the King and Creator of Creation, and the three-headed monster spat on and despised all that was of God.

As for G-Force's main psychic, she was at the moment sleeping a troubled sleep; she tossed and turned on the hospital bed, suffering nightmares and suffering a cold sweat. In that darkened room, Kyle Martin sat at her side and heard her speak and moan and cry in her sleep. At that, the reporter's grandson took her hand and held it in his own in an effort to comfort her. At feeling the reassuring touch of the man she loved, Miki stopped her turning, but she still kept her heavy breathing and her chest still kept heaving.

Kyle Martin shook his head at this; as his expertise was desperately needed elsewhere, he wouldn't be able to stay in Tokyo much longer. If he'd have been able to, Kyle would have asked his grandfather to stay at Miki side in his absence but that was out of the question. His grandfather was already an old man and the destruction of their home back in Chicago had in no way improved his health. True, the elder Martin had selflessly volunteered to be there for the woman that both he and his grandson loved but it wouldn't do.

Yet while Kyle had been touched by the sentiment and he knew that Miki would catch up with the two of them in New York soon enough, he was determined to stay at her side as long as possible. He knew that Miki would make a full recovery, even if would take an inordinately long time. She was a strong woman and she'd make it; she had last time hadn't she? Until that time that she woke up, he would stay at her side.

It was then that that Miki's eyes began to move slightly and she began to slowly stir to consciousness. Her head ached as she dragged it across the pillow but she forced herself to move anyways. On seeing this, Kyle gently clasped her hand and brushed his hand across her forehead; he was greatly relieved to see that she was fine. He softly said, "Miki, it's me, Kyle. I'm here for you, just relax now."

Miss Segeusa looked towards him and weakly nodded. She then smiled as she squeezed his hand, before leaning back and closing her eyes. "Thank you."

It had been almost a month since what had happened at Washington but she had finally woken up… but what had she woken up to? Some would say that it would have been better to die and be done with it rather than face the world that now presented itself. Across the globe, cities lay in ruins, people were dying by the millions, and governments were collapsing by the day leaving only anarchy to rule in their places. In not a few countries, the people had just given up and mass suicides had taken place, leaving corpses to litter broken streets. The greatest proof of surrender was that the people were so desperate that they were prepared to use the Dimension Tide. The reporter's grandson shook his head at that thought. Since it came to his attention, both he and his grandfather were opposing it; Steven Martin had an appointment with Japan's Prime Minister to talk about it.

However, Kyle and those he knew weren't among them such quitters; if anything they were ready to stay true to the words Churchill spoke when the British people faced their darkest hour. Churchill said that they would fight in the seas and on the oceans, that they'd fight on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets, and that they would never surrender. Indeed, what that man said of his people was now true of all peoples in that if their world were to last for a thousand years, that generations hence would say that this was their finest hour. Martin believed so with reason because he was younger than his grandfather was when he had crawled out from the rubble of a ruined Tokyo to tell Emiko if there was some way of helping that it had to be taken. Steven Martin's grandson and those with him hadn't given up then and they wouldn't give up, not now, not ever.

Miki's grandfather had heard a similar thing from another. On remembering this, Kyle looked at her sleeping form in the darkness and recalled what Private Akira Segeusa had heard in the Pacific War. It had been from his commanding officer and it was that they still had to believe in the final victory over the enemy. It was then that Major Shindo had told his men of all those that fought before them had fought valiantly and had fought to the very last man without giving up. It was true than and it was so now. They would fight on, no matter what. Martin passed his hand over Miki's forehead and knew that they'd fight no matter what.

However, while there were some willing to fight on, there were inevitably those who had lost all hope and thought to do nothing but hide and wait for the hour of their destruction. A few months later this was seen in one man, let's call him "Tim," who was amidst a sick, starving, ragged mob in front of the four city block sized City Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The broken skyscrapers that surrounded the burnt Hall were empty and the fountains around ran dry; it showed how the whole city was almost deserted and would soon be emptied. At least that was what the people on the food convoy said

On top of a Hummer, an armed National Guardsman spoke over a loud speaker. "I'm sorry but I have my orders that this will be the last delivery of food and medicine to come here. The city of Philadelphia is lost and you will all have to find somewhere else to go."

Someone shouted, "But this city is our home!"

"Yeah, we can't leave. We've nowhere else to go."

The guardsman shook his head. "I'm sorry but I have no choice. In fighting King Ghidorah, US forces are stretched dangerously thin as it is; we simply cannot waste any more resources here either protecting the city… or helping you."

"You back stabber!" an old man shouted as he raised his fist. "You say that you'll protect us and then when we need you, you turn your back on us!"

"Really soldier boy?" asked another. "Are you going to let us starve then?"

"Damn it!" yelled the guardsmen through the bullhorn, finally loosing his cool. "We have a war going on, the nation, hell, Earth is under attack by King Ghidorah! Not to mention that America still has the Swarm to worry about with a new Megaguirus to lead it AND the fact that Kansas is gone. Now all of you just shut up, get over it, get in line and get your food."

At that, grumbling people with sunken cheeks and showing ribs sullenly walked forwards to the military vehicles holding government foodstuffs. (What they got was the same kind that people on welfare get and it was just as humiliating.) With some of the nation's richest farmland, Pennsylvanians were a traditionally well fed people; that was seen in how the state had been the chief food processing area in the country for years and that its agriculture had been worth over three billion dollars.

But with the war on and with the Swarm having stripped orchards, vineyards, and wheat fields bare, and with King Ghidorah having Tainted what little hadn't been, those days were a memory. (Not to mention how Megaguirus, on taking command of the leaderless Swarm had had it destroy the state's manufacturing plants, steel mills, etc. She'd even had Them dug tunnels into Pennsylvanian coal mines so that the monstrous kamikaze fireflies could fly in to set the mines ablaze. After all, industry is the lifeblood of a modern nation. Clever thing, wasn't she?)

The soldiers in charge looked on as the hungry starving people walked towards the trucks; when they saw the food being distributed, they began shoving and shouting. The guardsmen on the Hummer soon saw that isolated incidents of violence began and that the hungriest people, those that most needed food were shunted to the back. Angry with this, the man in charge yelled over the loudspeaker. "Stop this right now and get back in line! Children and their mothers first!"

On seeing that the mob was neither listening nor stopping, the angry National Guardsmen fired a shot from his gun into the air. "I SAID, CHILDREN AND THEIR MOTHERS FIRST!" The echo of the shot hadn't even died down when the frightened mob immediately stopped in its tracks to let desperate ragged urchins go forward for boxes marked "cereal" or for bags marked "bread." However, there were still some who were itching for a fight and were ready to trade blows. A long column of people formed, desperate families, wanting to feed their babes. On receiving what was given them, the parents turned back and timidly took the food and their children back with them. But still more came to take their place.

At this "Tim"—remember him?—saw that the food would quickly be exhausted on those people. He knew that he had to get some food back to his own family. Unable to prove that he had one, he also knew that he would never get any. Desperate, he shoved people aside to get to a woman whom he saw had gotten several vials of medicine, maybe some of it was even Regenerator G-1. Tim saw the woman holding her son by one hand and a bag of food & medicine in the other to say, "Please, miss, I'm desperate. I've got kids at home and they're hungry and sick. If you'd just—"

"What?" exclaimed the woman. "I'm sorry, but I can't give you any. My kids are hungry too and they're right here. You're just going to have to get in line like everyone else."

With that, the woman walked away but Tim followed her. "Please! I didn't bring my kids and so they're putting me last in line. They're going to run out of food by the time they get to me!"

"Listen, you're going to have to get in line. If you don't, then you'll be sorry!"

Desperate, Tim grabbed her by the coat and said "Just one crumb, I'm begging you!"

At that, a tall man, the woman's husband no doubt, stalked towards her, pushing people aside as he did so but unwittingly sowing the seeds for a riot among an already edgy crowd. Ignoring the people that were beginning to shove and yell once more, the man came to his wife's defense and pulled Tim off saying, "Get your hands off her! Leave her alone and get out of here!"

Frightened, Tim pulled wads and wads of money out of his coat and pleaded. "I'm no thief. Take the money but just give me some food."

Amidst the fighting that had begun, the man that held Tim punched him across the face in disgust, saying, "Damn it! Money's no good anymore!"

With rioting and soldiers trying to restore order around him, Tim pulled out a gun from his coat and screamed, "You're going to give me that food or I'll kill you!"

On seeing this, the woman held her son to herself in fear even as her husband held up his hands and said, "Listen we need that too. You want some, just get in line."

"I can't wait that long. I know you won't believe me but I want you to know that I'm really sorry for this." Taking advantage of the situation, Tim picked up the bags the couple dropped and ran off with them and hid himself in the rioting crowd. Ignoring how much of a scavenger he was and instead telling himself that everyone else was doing it, he hurriedly picked up the food that other people dropped and ran towards a dilapidated automobile. After all, he told himself as he drove off, if he were to have let such thoughts of morality get in his way, he would never have stolen the Volkswagen.

He drove on the highway for hours until he got away from any urban areas and made it to the countryside. By then, he was on the highway going through the forest when he came across a large area of several hundred square miles that had been burned to the ground by napalm and blasted out of the soil with explosives. It had once been a place of green rolling hills and soft plains but now there were just scorched rocks, hardened sand, and dead trees for hundreds of miles around. This had been where the first battle between human armies and those of the new Swarm had been fought. You'd think it was the Arizona desert or something else but for now it was base camp for a tent and RV city made up of desperate refugees.

On arriving at his destination, Tim drove off the road and towards the shanty town of hundreds of tents, hovels, and RVs hoping for a warm reception from his wife. As for the wife, she was outside, leaning in the shade against a RV pensively watching the television set up next to a portable generator with several other people. They were watching news updates on the war and none of them was good. That Matsu woman was saying "Ham radio operators from Tokyo to Bogata are trading rumors of military forces in hiding, unwilling to reveal themselves for fear of annihilation."

At that she shook her head. That report was sure easy to believe; in the months since King Ghidorah had destroyed Washington, there hadn't even been a mention of resistance. It was then that Tim stopped his car near where his family's large cabin tent was and got off much to his wife's relief. She got out of the RV's shade to hug him and say, "Honey, are you all right?" She lowered her voice. "Did you bring back any food? Anything to help the kids?"

Tim smiled and pointed to the bags that were in the car. So that he might not be heard, he softly said, "Sure did. Look at them and at this."

With that he led her to the car and opened the door, leaning over to pull out a bag from the passenger side front seat. Bringing it out he opened it and revealed a syringe and several vials marked Regenerator G-1, the famed miracle medicine that was one of the few bright spots in the Monster Wars. The wife looked at it and cried tears of joy as she kissed her husband. "Oh, thank God, we might be able to save Bobby!"

With that, the two of them went towards the large tent that held them and all their remaining earthly possessions, their shoes crunching the sand and gravel as they passed the tents and cars. Yet as they walked past them all, Tim hid the medicine in his pocket, knowing that the other sick people there would quite possibly kill to get it-he saw the proof of that when he craned his neck and saw the Jones's burying their son. Last they heard, King Ghidorah had Tainted the boy with smallpox; he hoped that the other people in the Emmerichville had been able to get medicine from Philly but if not, then he would share his supply only after his own children were safe.

On getting to his large, walk in tent and opening the flap he saw his son and daughter asleep. The girl was suffering a cold sweat and was coughing; Bobby was suffering all that along with strange lesions and some scattered pustules. Seeing them, Tim closed the flap on the tent and pulled out a syringe; filling it with the odd green liquid marked Regenerator G-1, he injected his two children. Susan immediately stopped relaxed coughing and relaxed immediately; as for Bobby, he stopped sweating and turning, his lesions even seemed close in seconds.

Looking at this, the mother smiled and kissed her husband. "Oh sweetie, I can hardly believe this! It looks like they're getting better already."

Tears freely coming from his face, Tim chuckled. "Who ever thought we get something from Godzilla."

The wife said, "Oh I don't know, with all he's been fighting Ghidorah, maybe he's more than just some monster. Anyways, sweetie, I was wondering about all the food I saw back in the beetle, how'd you get them to give you so much food? I mean, it looks like it's more than what the government would give to one person."

"I… it's that…"

At that, his wife gasped and reached into her husband's coat to pull out a gun. "Honey, you promised you wouldn't! You could have killed someone with that!"

Tim cursed. "Oh what else could I have done? I had to get something for the kids!"

She sighed at that. "It's just that with those separatists trying civil war out west, and all the gangs that have been rioting and taking whole cities… I'm afraid that you'd turn into one of them. Honey, couldn't you have done something else?" asked his wife.

He shook his head and remembered how his brother had gone mad before turning into an emaciated skeleton that rotted away in its own filth. "No… with King Ghidorah there is no other way."

The wife looked up, deep in thought. "Maybe there is. If we can make it north to New York City, we'll be safe. It hasn't been attacked and there's enough food for everyone there. It's worth a try, don't you think?"

At that the fellow whom we have named "Tim" sighed. "Maybe."

At that moment in New York City, Secretary General Santos was brooding as he looked over the city from the windows of the UN's towering black Secretariat Building. At that moment, he saw how the setting sun made the forest of skyscrapers glow red. The man thought of how New York had been America's capital since the aftermath of DC's destruction and was serving its purposes well. (However, with White House II set up in the nearby Twin Towers, this also meant that he and Emmerich were now butting heads every other day.) After all, hadn't the city been the first capital of the US—Washington had been inaugurated President there—so wasn't America's capital just coming home? Well, many native New Yorkers didn't see it that way because the situation was going beyond even their ability to take things in stride. With so many refugees coming every day into the city, it was becoming dangerously overcrowded and the once seemingly infinite resources of the city were being taxed to the limit. Looking out from the UN Building, Santos could see the proof of this in the two Emmerichvilles—Hoovervilles in the Depression—that were carpeting Sheep's Meadow and the Great Lawn about a mile to the north in Central Park. With the warming of spring, there were more shanty towns like them in parks and other places across the city, especially on Staten Island.

New York City… the Imperial City of an Empire State it was America's largest, wealthiest, most powerful city. Built by the Dutch and called New Amsterdam, since its founding in 1624 the city had always been where big things happened. It was the center of world trade and of multinational corporations; it was a land of manmade mountains and a testament to man's ingenuity and knowledge. New York was a cultural center without equal, a place of books and poets and museums and operas. It was a place of Chinatowns, of Stock Exchanges, of Little Italies, of Macy Thanksgiving Parades, of St. Patrick's Cathedrals, of Greenwich Villages, of Columbia Universities, of Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, of Cloisters, and more. It was a place where America's greatest symbol cried out to all the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, to the wretched refuse of teeming shores, a statue that cried out send them home to me. New York was a place where people of every nation, race, and creed, had come in the hopes of making a better life for themselves and their children. It was a virtual rainbow where every form of diversity; black men and white men, Jew and Gentile, gay and straight; was known and celebrated. New York was the gateway to a New World where countless immigrants had passed in hopes of freedom and a second chance.

Yet New York was also a place where violence and bigotry and ignorance had divided the very people that came there for that second chance. It was, in fact, a place where, during the Civil War, immigrants who came for that freedom had rioted and looted and killed, burning even hospitals and orphanages, in hatred at the idea that they were being recruited to fight for the freedom of slaves. It was a place where Tammany Hall leader Boss Tweed had ruled the city more than a hundred years ago with a corrupt and iron fist before falling from power and where political machines ground the people with an iron heel for decades afterwards until they too fell. It was a metropolis where pollution of the skies and of the waters and of the heart had run rampant for years. New York was a place where cynicism and callousness and greed were common place; as a place of business it was, in fact, built on greed. It was the place of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" where the rich had cruelly ruled the poor for so very long, making them slaves without chains. It was a place where its people had been made to anonymously slave away as if they were insects in an ant colony, a place of poverty and slums and ghettoes.

Yet in a strange way, having both the light and the dark bound together made New York what it was. In every way possible, New York City was America, both the good and the bad, right down to arrogance and decadence to the glory and the hope. As the most international city on the planet, a microcosm of the human experience, it was not surprisingly home to the UN, thus making it the capital of the world. It was by far America's greatest city and in many ways NYC, not Washington, had always been the capital.

From his topmost corner office, Santos looked across the awesome skyline of the city, every single building a tower of Babel, and wondered to himself how hard it would be for King Ghidorah to destroy them. As he sighed, he thought to himself that it would probably be rather easy for the three-headed monster to do so. In recent times, New York had come to be something of the light's last outpost before the eternal dark. It had held that position after the blood and carnage of the second World War in how the UN was formed as a global congress so that men might live on in everlasting peace. Since then, the New York headquartered UN had faced down invasions from lost civilizations and from alien races, it had seen the dawn of the Age of Monsters in the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. And it was in this city, that Secretary General Santos had vowed that the human race would fight on until it claimed final victory from King Ghidorah.

Santos shook his head as he took it all in. This city had always had a magical lure for him and it was very special to him. It should be; he had lived there for the past fifteen years and had spent the last nine in his current position as king of the world. For almost the past year since the Monster Wars began, this city had truly become Earth's wartime headquarters, something of Washington or London in WWII. Now, however, it seemed as if Hitler had taken London… and Moscow. Now, thought Santos, it seemed as if a vow of final victory seemed empty rhetoric. But as Stalin reminded his troops as he put guns to their heads in the "Great Patriotic War," it's for the principle of the thing that we fight.

Miguel Santos smirked at his bit of black humor; he knew that his son Tomas would have only rolled his eyes at that. Well, thought Santos, Tomas has enough on his mind with battling Megaguirus and the Swarm in Canada without such nonsense. It was in times like these that the Secretary General looked to leaders of the past and see the choices they made and apply the lessons they learned to his own policies. The only leader that had been in a comparable situation had been President Harry Truman in deciding whether or not to use the atom bomb. There was a difference, however in that Truman's Manhattan Project scientists had only wondered if their weapon would set the sky on fire while Santos had to wonder if his weapon would send humanity spiraling to the abyss with the push of a button.

Tomas had been asking his father to authorize the DT for months but he had always told his son no. It was quite simply too dangerous, too risky he had said. But after seeing everything that the DFE could throw at King Ghidorah fail and leave him free to burn the capital of one of Earth's mightiest nations to smoking cinders, the man felt that this was the only way that any of them could live on. It had been by far the most difficult decision that he had yet to make but he had at last given the order that the Dimension Tide be deployed against the three-headed monster.

It was than that Santos looked over New York City, the capital of the world, his world, and cried. He had given the order for the most destructive weapon man had yet formed and all he could think to himself as a one tear rolled down his cheek was, May God forgive me for that which I must do…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

While that was the mood in the UN Building, it was quite different from the mood at White House II set up about three miles south west in the north tower of the World Trade Center. President Emmerich had been one of the chief proponents of using the DT against King Ghidorah for several months now and was now overjoyed on having heard that it would be deployed. At the moment he was in his new Oval Office in his chair, putting his feet on the desk, as he looked to his Vice President. "It's going to work Frank! I'm telling you, this weapon is going to work and people are going to be sorry they didn't do it earlier like I told them!"

Franklin Smith was looking to a picture of James Madison that had been salvaged from the first White House. Considering what had happened to the Executive Mansion in Madison's term, it was rather appropriate to have that portrait he thought. He was thinking of that even as his boss was talking to the air about glorious re-election, that he was such a marvelous war leader.

Devlin Emmerich then went and pulled out a cigar, Cuban of course. "I'm going to go down in history as the man who saved the world! I tell you Frank, I'm going to be the same league as Columbus and Caesar!"

Smith angrily looked at the man who held his leash and frowned. "I must agree with what you say sir." He thought to himself that the despoiler of two entire continents and a ruthless conquering dictator would fit Devlin Emmerich perfectly. Every day, he was growing to hate the man and every day hated himself more for his inability to say no to his master.

At that, the most despised man in America's history looked to his right hand man and said, "I'm going to go down in history Frank, I don't believe it!"

"I don't believe it…" That's what Steven Martin said in the office of Japan's Prime Minister. After the destruction of the US capital, Santos had given the order that the Dimension Tide be deployed, Kyle had told him. Having been there to see the Oxygen Destroyer, the DT was something old newsman didn't want used and wanted to prevent. He had spoken with Miguel and Tomas Santos, with Goodhue, with Aso, with Hayashida, with Tsujimori, and with Yoshizawa to no avail. Now the man he was with was perhaps the only hope he had left. "I don't believe it sir. King Ghidorah is undoubtedly the worst monster that we've ever had to face but we don't need that evil weapon. We have to find some way of defeating that thing without the Dimension Tide. You've got to do something to prevent this."

The Japanese Prime Minister shook his head. "Mr. Martin, I understand your concern but please understand that there is nothing more I can do. I share your concerns and I have already pleaded with Mr. Miguel Santos but he has proven adamant in his choice. As Secretary General, his power is greater than mine and he has overruled me; quite simply there is nothing I can do. But what about you? As I recall, your grandson is his son's best friends; why not have him talk?"

Martin sighed. "We already have sir and both of them are going along with this. Can't you at least talk to Yoshizawa or Tsujimori? The two of them have to have some idea of what they're trying to do. It could mean disaster unlike anybody can imagine."

Despite the self-control ingrained in the Japanese, the Prime Minister at last angrily looked at the man that said that to him. Trying to restrain himself as he spoke, the Emperor's first minister said, "Mr. Steven Martin, I'll have you understand that I have done everything in my power to protest the usage of the Black Hole Gun and more. I don't like it anymore than you do but I know when I am beaten. Do you?"

Martin stood in silence for a moment considering the words given him. "I do Mr. Prime Minister. You have done everything you could and so there is nothing more that can be asked of you. If there is nothing more to be said then I believe that our session is ended."

"Yes it is," said the black haired man. He returned to his desk to look over the documents and reports that covered it, but as he sat down and held one of those papers in his hand he looked to gray haired man with whom he had just spoken. "Mr. Martin?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

Martin nodded. "I understand sir, and thank you."

With that, he walked out of the Prime Minister's red brick mansion to his next mission. As he did so, he turned past the gates that were already closed to him and walked away with his hands in his pockets. "So this is how it's all going to end."

"That's how it's all going to end," said Commander Aso. "We're going to deploy the Dimension Tide and that means that the Monster Wars are finally going to be over."

"It well could and I am glad of that," said Dr. Yoshizawa. "The Dimension Tide is fully functional and we have tested it several times… but I'm still a little worried about it."

The military officer turned his head over his shoulder to look at the scientist; he saw her with a hand on a computer and with her head hanging. While he didn't like scientists, Aso did feel some compassion for his fellow human beings; this was no exception. "You say you're worried, would you care to say why?" He saw a worried look on her face. "Don't worry, I won't hold anything against you."

"It's just the sheer idea of what we're trying to do. We use the star gate engine from a captured Mysterian space ship and we reverse engineer it in the thought of using a miniature black hole as a weapon. The collapsed core of a dead star is the most dangerous thing in creation… light itself can't escape, it eats entire planet… to use it is sheer lunacy. Even if nothing goes wrong, the sheer destructive power behind it and what it could lead to is beyond anything that we've imagined. I wonder if this is how the people who made the atom bomb felt like."

Aso raised an eyebrow. "The majority of them were sorry they ever built the damn thing, especially after the arms race began. Some of them even had the same fears that you have, the fear that the weapon you built would go and destroy the world. However, if you felt so badly about making DT, why did you make it in the first place?"

Yoshizawa knew that Aso already knew the answer. "I did so because it was my duty, I had no choice but God knows that I did all I could in protesting it."

"You could have resigned from your job," said the old soldier.

The scientist smirked. "We Japanese don't resign from our jobs."

"True," responded the G-Force Supreme Commander as he took a sip from his glass. "It is also true that while there are dangers in making and using the DT, the greatest danger by far is King Ghidorah. We will deal with these other problems when and if they come into play. After all, if we don't to use the DT then we won't survive to face the threats that accompany using it now will we? So far, even as all Asia has been ravaged, Japan has been the only country in the world that hasn't suffered attack by King Ghidorah and by heaven, I plan for it to stay that way."

On hearing that, Yoshizawa just nodded at Aso as he went to a nearby counter and poured a cup of saki for himself and for her. "We're going to make it doctor and the weapon you made is proof that we are. A toast then…"

"A toast… to the end of the world." Kyle was at a tiny Tokyo bar when he growled that in Japanese. He had been at Miki's bedside for weeks, waiting for her to get better and now that Miki felt well enough to walk, he had taken her out on the town in an effort to cheer her up. She was glad to have it because she had already volunteered to be returned to active duty; though it would mostly be paper work and the like at UN HQ alongside Kyle, she had gotten it. As for the situation now, young Martin had taken things easy as Miki wasn't yet to full strength, but they had window shopped at the gaudy neon lighted Ginza strip and had gone to see a movie at the Akasuka district, gone to their usual place for karaoke and pachinko and had hoped to top off the day with a stop at a tiny hole in the wall bar. It was going to be good end to a good day for the both of them but the news broadcast went and ruined it.

That he wasn't the only one who felt that way was made clear when someone said in English, "Excuse me, but are you American?"

Kyle turned around to see a woman of European descent who said that, she and a teenage boy at her side, her son probably, who were right next to him. "Hai, I mean yes," he responded as he shifted gears from one language to another. "I actually have dual citizenship, I became a Japanese citizen a few years ago but as you can see I can speak English well enough. Can I help you?"

Mother and son looked to one another and the boy said, "Hi, my mom and I just wanted to know if you could tell us what the broadcast said. The two of us are new to Japan and we were only able to understand a little bit of what the TV said."

Kyle nodded. "The newsman said that the UNGCC is going to use a new super weapon against King Ghidorah called the Dimension Tide. Its supposed to be the ultimate weapon, more powerful than a hundred nuclear bombs, and will completely destroy the monster."

The woman smiled. "That's great. If it really can beat King Ghidorah then I'm all for it. My son and I saw for ourselves saw what things like him and Godzilla are capable of when Godzilla destroyed Miami. Because of what we saw, we left America and came here to Japan."

On hearing these seemingly contradictory remarks, the kaijuologist raised an eyebrow and said, "I see." This was becoming an increasingly common sight; like New York City in the United States, refugees, especially Americans, were going to Japan. For unknown reasons, the land of the rising sun had in no way been attacked since by the King of the Monsters or any of his subjects since their king's aborted assault on Tokyo mere weeks before the start of the Monster Wars. As such, with nation after nation being burned to the ground by monster after monster, Japan was increasingly being thought of as a safe haven.

However, crowded and homogenous as his country was, the Prime Minister had been discouraging mass immigration. He correctly stated that there was no real reason to expect that Japan might not be eventually attacked—it was the monster capital of the world after all. Even so, Japan had been reluctant to lose face and appear a cold hearted ogre; thus it had actively opposed the influx of refugees only reluctantly. Recalling this, Kyle then raised his glass to the couple. "Well I hope that you have a good time here in Nippon."

"Thanks," said the smiling pair simultaneously.

At that a quizzical look came across the boy's face. Remembering why he had left America but recalling where he as, she had to ask, "Umm I wanted to know something mister. You live here in Tokyo, right?" He saw Kyle nod. "…do… y'know…"

Martin smirked. "Do the monsters really attack Tokyo every other day?" The boy and his mother nodded. "Not really. True, Japan does have a healthy population of kaiju—the largest, most densely concentrated in the world in fact—like the giant boar herds or the ebirahs in the Sea of Japan. Both are harmless and even have their places." With a blasé expression, he pointed to the steaks on the couple's plates and made them squirm. "May not be palatable when you find out what it is, but with the global famine, you take what food you can.

"As for Godzilla and the other dai-kaiju, they're really spread out. The big guys have been seen in the Americas, Europe, Africa, all over the place. Yeah, there are plenty of monsters in the western Pacific probably because of all the nuclear tests that were conducted there in the old days but they're hardly confined to Japan. Godzilla and the others have been sighted all throughout East Asia and the Pacific; they've been seen in easternmost Russia, Korea, China, the Philippines, and even as far south as Indonesia and Vietnam. But God knows I can't explain why it is that so many more kaiju live here and come here than any other place. As to why Godzilla in particular centers more around Japan, Tokyo at that, nobody really knows; the most common theory is that it was his territory in the dinosaur age."

He saw the mother place a frightened arm around her son's shoulder. "Don't worry!" he emphasized. "With his battling King Ghidorah, Godzilla hasn't been anywhere near Japan for almost a year and even if he were, you still wouldn't have to worry. Tokyo is huge, even bigger than New York City is now with its being America's new capital. Even when Godzilla does attack, Tokyo is so big that the odds of his being in your area of the megalopolis are slim to none. I do admit, it takes a certain kind of person to stick it out here, it leaves you in a constant wartime mentality… But with all the Godzilla merchandise out there and the joke that if Godzilla didn't keep destroying the city every other day that Japan would be ruling the world by now, you just kind of get use to it."

The couple just weakly smiled and nodded their thanks; Kyle said that they were welcome and turned back to his drink.

"Kyle?" asked Miki weakly.

"Yeah, what is it sweets?" he responded.

"Do you remember when we first came here? You were all surprised at the beyond mini-bar and how I always got free drinks because my age and weight came to less than a hundred?"

Kyle fought back a slight grin. "Yeah I remember that and how I felt when you told me that these bars used to be waiting rooms for brothels before the red light district moved elsewhere."

At that, the Miki rolled her eyes as he paid for their drinks. On doing that, they got up and walked out of the bar into the narrow street. They went slowly, however as Miki was still pale and recovering her strength but at least she could walk now. Now night, she and her love quickly found themselves on a wide boulevard with colossal buildings and blinding multi-colored neon signs. They began walking down the crowded streets of Tokyo; it still amazed Kyle that there were so many people there, like sardines in a can.

With well over 8,000,000 people on 223 square miles, Tokyo was one of the biggest, and certainly most crowded, cities in the world. (And that's just the city proper.) It was even more amazing just how peaceful it was since Godzilla had left. Like he had told the couple, there were no drills, no false alarms, no going into the shelters, no reports of homeless and refugees… no children cheering because Godzilla had cancelled class.

However, such thoughts were but some of many that went through Kyle's mind.

"Are you feeling all right Kyle?" asked Miki. "You seem worried."

"No, I'm ok."

Segeusa smiled and shook her head. "Kyle, I know you better than that. You're thinking of something that you're not saying."

A serious look spread across Martin's face. "Miki, you haven't stopped taking your medication have you? You know what the doctor said; until you're fully healed and can control your telepathy, you have to take those pills to suppress your powers."

She shook her head and decided it was time for some Western communication. "Its not that Kyle, a girlfriend just knows these things. So what's on your mind? You've been holding something back the whole afternoon and it's been burning you up."

Rather uncomfortable, he looked away and said, "No it's nothing, nothing at all."

Uncomfortable herself about what she was going to say, she nevertheless went and made herself say it. "No Kyle, there is something wrong. It won't help to keep it locked up."

Now feeling angry, he asked, "Why not? You do it all the time."

"I'm Japanese so I was taught from childhood to hide my feelings," said Miki. "You weren't raised in a society like this, it is not good for you. You should let whatever it is that's bothering you out."

At that, Kyle and Miki stopped. "Fine," he said. "There is something bothering me and it's the fact that Santos is going to use DT and that means it's over for all of us."

With people crowding past them, Miki slowly walked towards him and placed a hand in his shoulder. "The Secretary General didn't come to this decision lightly, he didn't have any other choice."

Kyle turned away from her and laughed. "'No choice…' As I recall, the man was considering several other choices, even bringing Godzilla into our little 'monster squad,' when you went and talked to him, telling him that he had to use the Dimension Tide or else. Leaves me wondering if you didn't use your powers to force that thought on him."

Miki gasped. "Kyle, you should know that I'd never do a thing like that!"

"I wish."

"I wish too, but I wish for there to be another way of defeating King Ghidorah." Miki looked at the man with her with a frightened look on her face. "Kyle, I've seen King Ghidorah's mind and I've seen what he's going to do. This conversation has been spoken before because we have our fears which might become reality and we have King Ghidorah which is reality."

"Ah yes, grandpa's book and the love triangle therein." Inflamed by one too many beers he'd drunk, he retorted. "Funny but another bit of history has also repeated itself. Miki, once you said that you loved me more than anyone else and for a long time, I believed you. I believed it but King Ghidorah said that in looking through your mind, he couldn't tell which one of us you loved more, me or Godzilla."

Segeusa looked to the ground. She heard Kyle angrily say, "Its true, isn't it? Maybe that monster is a liar but I'm betting that was the one bit of truth he ever spoke. All this time, I always knew that you felt sorry for that freak but I never thought that you would actually love him more than me.

"C'mon, Miki why don't you say it… why don't you skip the whole 'I'm Japanese so I'm going to lie to not hurt anybody's precious feelings thing' and tell the truth for once."

Segeusa stood in silence before finally finding her voice. "Its true Kyle, I love both you and Godzilla and I've spent many a sleepless night wondering who I cared for more, you as a lover or him as a friend. But you have to understand, with Godzilla, what I do for him can benefit the whole world. All the love I've given him was in the hope of changing him for the better, of making him a force for good like he was meant to be. He listened to me and that was good for everyone, not only for Japan but Asia and the world."

"For all the good it did. Sure you get him to spare Tokyo but afterwards he just goes to destroy Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, and Sapporo, with Pyongyang, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Vladivostok and Pusan on the side while he's at it." Angry, he turned to the woman at his side to ask, "What happened to the Miki that said that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me, raise a family with me, and grow old with me? Did she die or is just that she never was?"

He turned his back to her and put his hands on a nearby rail. He looked up to see the people walking by and the multitude of cars going past the brilliant buildings. He then asked the one question that he had never wanted to ask but felt that he had to have answered. "Which one of us do you love more?" Kyle saw Miki trying to stall for time. "Damn it, which one! Choose!"

That outburst froze the crowd around them and many a passerby stopped what they were doing and turned to see the fuss. Miki tried to put a comforting hand on Kyle—which he immediately shrugged off in anger. She heard him say it again, this time in a low menacing voice. "Choose…"

Segeusa was frozen at that. She tried to speak, tried to find some words that could soothe his angry heart but they could not come. She had been asked to choose. Her reply? "I can't."

At that, the man that once loved her angrily stomped off, fists clenching and unclenching in anger. Fearful for him, Miki stretched out her hand and said, "Kyle wait…"

He stopped and turned around for what she had to say. "If it makes any difference, I always loved you."

He shot her a dirty look before leaving. "Yeah, but my love for you just wasn't good enough, now was it?"

With that, Kyle went off into the Tokyo night, leaving Miki alone.

He'd went off into the night be left alone, completely alone, because feelings of anguish and confusion were not limited to humans.

In the frozen wastes of the far north, there is only ice and snow and bitterest cold because the Arctic Sea is naught but a frozen sea. The sub zero winds blowing across the solid ocean reminded one of how only in its southernmost extremities and in the warmest of summer months is the Arctic Sea even partially unfrozen. It was in this place amidst mountains and islands and forests of ice that a blue Atomic Ray shot through the cold and hardened water of the North Pole. The ice was blown apart and vaporized with immeasurable force and heat from the ray, with that its owner hauled himself out of the hole he had made.

Godzilla came out of the huge hundred-foot wide steaming hole and left boiling water behind him, the cracking ice sounding like an earthquake. At that, the leviathan stood at the rim of the hole he'd made in the ice pack and looked back and forth. The King of the Monsters saw nothing and walked forwards in this solitude. It was, of course, freezing and the salt water that cascaded along Godzilla's side turned into so many streaks of white that he looked like Lupis. Despite the frost frozen into the nooks and crannies of his gnarled black hide, the cold didn't bother him and he felt his warm breath turn to vapor in the cold air. No, what he felt cutting to his bone was something far deeper.

At the middle of the Arctic Sea amidst unending ice, the place was one of the most desolate and isolated places in the world. This was the place where he always went when he needed to be alone and after what had happened, he definitely needed to be alone. There were no humans there to claim it because none could live there. Human armies couldn't follow across the snow, nor could their navies come in force past the ice, nor could their planes come to battle because of the distances to any place for them to be launched from. With the magnetic interference of the North Pole, not even Miki's telepathy could find him there. Nothing was there to disturb his solitude, neither man nor beast, just the endless expanse of white. He sought such privacy because he needed to be alone to think.

Godzilla kept walking, every sound he made magnified a thousand fold by deafening silence. His footsteps crunching in the snow, his back plates clanking together, his breath hissing as he breathed in and out, the growls he made echoed across the frozen land. As the King of the Monsters walked past mountains of ice, many of which dwarfed even him, he wondered if his life would forever remain as cold and as sterile as this place.

This wasn't the first time that he went to this northern clime and probably wouldn't be the last. It was because ever since he felt the Beast emerge from his icy tomb in the human year of 1954, he had been drawn here. However, with the Rhedosaurus's death, Godzilla truly was the last of a dead and forgotten race. Awakened as "Godzillasaurus" in the 1930s, he had been a stranger in a strange land, remembering only the death of his kind and sadly seeing that it was true. Confused on seeing the mammals—whom he remembered from his childhood as being an inferior race of rodent spawn—ruling the world in place of the dinosaurs, he had tried to claim a home amidst the last, withered, remaining vestiges of the saurian empire. The Lost World had been destroyed but Skull Island was still untouched yet with its destruction, even that wish for asylum was denied him.

His world, his mate, all of it gone forever. His mate… dear sweet Gigantis. She had loved him and cared for him, she had showed him passion and she had been beautiful, she would have even given him a son. Yet Gigantis whom he so loved died that black day 65,000,000 years ago. She had died that day along with his parents, his son and everyone else whom he had ever loved; as guardian of the saurian empire, that meant many indeed. He was their protector; he'd been born to safeguard the saurian race and to ensure its survival but when they needed him the most, there hadn't been anything he could to do to save them. He had failed them, failed the Great Tyrannosaur, and had had to live with the shame and guilt for over 65,000,000 years; sometimes he'd even asked himself if his solitude wasn't some kind of punishment for his failure. In the cold of the north, Godzilla almost wept ice.

Almost, but not quite as sorrow was tempered with hatred. He had lost his family and all those whom he loved by the fault of the demon known across the stars as King Ghidorah. The demon was evil and more than evil; he was a cancer on creation and stain against the cosmos. His first sin was to slay the world of the dinosaurs, Godzilla's world, and that was not a sin that the King of the Monsters took lightly. The three-headed monster was a cesspool of sin and cruelty that the leviathan despised to the very core of his being as the author of all his woes and as the source of all his pain.

As the eons passed him by, Godzilla had tried to forget the hate as a futile gesture in the thought that it wasn't as if he would ever have the chance to confront the enemy. Yet with the evil one's advent that had changed in an instant because he felt all his fury rekindled and all his old memories dredged up. King Ghidorah remembered his old foe and had returned the mocking hate to challenge him to battle. It was a call to arms that Godzilla was all to ready to accept. He then stopped walking across the ice and buried himself as best he could amidst a mammoth snowdrift, several hundred feet deep. There, he left himself buried amidst the white powder and felt the cold caress him. He then remembered a different thing that he had had to face in playing his hand in the Monster Wars: humans.

On first seeing the humans, Godzilla had been stunned to see that the rodent spawn he remembered from his hatchling days as huddling in holes and skulking in darkness had gone on to become something more. After Shindo's betrayal on Lagos, he felt that it was barely more. He'd gone on to hate the humans for having ruined the world he had protected and for having stolen his ancestral home. In raiding Japan from southernmost Kyushu to northernmost Hokkaido and the land around it, Miki had told him of those who suffered for of his wrath. Perhaps, but had he not suffered more for having claimed that land first? Godzilla had hated the humans as a band of evil and arrogant creatures, wretched mammals unaware of their own insignificance.

Godzilla shifted in the snow, perhaps hoping that the cool powder would soothe his burning heart; it felt good, like Hokkaido's Kitami Mountains in January. With the dawn of the Monster Wars, he had found himself fighting alongside humans as often as he had fought against them. They clearly shared a common enemy in King Ghidorah so why had the humans fought against him in the last battle? If the humans had truly wanted the three-headed monster dead, then wouldn't they have let him do battle against it? Those mammals had fought him not only in that battle but across the sea and through the air all through the War. If only Miki had been there to hear him. She would have understood; she would have talked to them.

The leviathan got up from the snowdrift and resumed walking, shaking off snow as he did so. Why couldn't the humans understand? That he had fought against them was true, but did they truly think him any worse than the demon? If the humans were so stupid, then Godzilla was tempted the think that they all deserved to die. With all they had done to him and to his world, the King of the Monsters knew that he would never shed any tears for them. He had no pity for them… except for Miki, it always came back to her. Why did she please him so only to devil him?

After the death of Gigantis, Godzilla had been convinced that he would never feel love again and yet every time he and Miki met, she showed him love and pity and kindness and made him feel whole. In all the eons it had known, the leviathan had only felt such feelings of contentment when its mate lived; it was as if Gigantis was reborn inside Miki. At the same time though, she made him feel doubt and confusion, made him ask if following his vendettas was the right path. Time and again whether it was a skyscraper, a bullet train, or a stadium in the megalopolis of Tokyo, a shrine in Kyoto the old capital, ships in the Inland Sea or even just a lowly farm in backwater Shikoku, Beast looked on Beauty and stayed his hand from killing.

She had done so not because she was a human but for the sake of mercy to be shown on all living things. If Miki showed such mercy, would it not be for a reason? The King of the Monsters had known her since she was but a hatchling and had seen her grow up. When she'd been a child he'd thought that it was mere naiveté, thought that she was blind to a truth that she did not wish to see. Now after all these years, he couldn't help but ask if she had been in the right and that it had been he who was blind to a truth that he had not wished to see.

Godzilla stopped walking because he felt that he'd had enough brooding. King Ghidorah yet lived for he had yet to be destroyed. Godzilla knew he would have his revenge and that he would destroy all those that stood against him in order to claim it. Walking past a mountain of ice, he walked towards where the ice was thinnest, his weight making the ground crack; with that, he charged his ray and fired downwards at the snow as his plates shone. He managed to shoot a hole in the icepack wide enough for him to go into and after giving a final look at the frozen wasteland. He then leapt into the frigid Arctic waters and swam away. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two

It was a standard rule that an army's plans and attack strategies be kept secret even from itself. Aside from being a standard rule, it was also just common sense; the fewer people that know what the plan is, the less likely the enemy is to find out for themselves. What was happening now was very much an exception to that rule in that majority of the global community was aware of the current plan to use the Dimension Tide against King Ghidorah. It could be done because despite the fact that King Ghidorah was clearly an intelligent being, there was of course no way that he could know what the humans were bringing against him, even if it was broadcast around the world. It was done because the Secretary General had decided to make the existence of DT and the plan to use it public in hopes of boosting flagging morale.

The revelation had had mixed results. Hawks felt their hopes rise in knowing that they had an ultimate weapon that could win the day; doves felt despair at the idea that such a horrific thing would used. The majority of people, however, were caught in between those two viewpoints in that while they (barely) feared the DT more than they did King Ghidorah, they also knew that it they didn't use it, what would become of them? That was the world mood concerning this and many just hoped that they would survive long enough to contemplate their fears.

All over the world, people were on the edge of their seats and listening to any report on the coming assault. From the sovereign nation of Vatican City, the Pope called on all Christians to pray for the success of the attack. In America, the President proclaimed himself the architect of this grand design. Across the globe, people tried to understand why there no other option left them yet it was only in Japan that the people truly knew why it was that Santos had made his choice and why they wished there had been another. Japan especially so in that it was in nearby China that Dimension Tide would be used—at the gates of Beijing to be precise.

At the gates of Beijing, it was cold at the miserable stone tower that one Chinese soldier had been stationed at, cold and cramped. However, he didn't complain; he knew that a soldier doesn't complain but instead grins and bears it and follows his orders as best he can. For what felt like the millionth time, he walked to the edge of the parapet and looked through his night vision binoculars across the dry, darkened, green and brown landscape that was the eastern lowlands. (However, the night vision meant that everything looked green and various shades thereof.) It was a good vantage point there in the mountains; that was why Emperor Chin had begun the Great Wall there all those millennia ago.

The Chinese soldier looked across the thousands of miles of the Wall that snaked across the mountains, seemingly to infinity through the night. He did that and remembered how it had been built with the blood and tears of his ancestors by an unforgiving ruler but for thousands of years had been like a mighty dragon guarding its beloved land. It was also a marvel of engineering and design and sheer determination, one boast even claimed that the unaided eye could see it from the moon. It was then that the soldier recalled another claim of the Great Wall.

It was the claim of how the bodies of those that had died building it were inside; some even said that disobedient workers had been buried alive. Our soldier kept reminding himself that the story wasn't true, that historians were right in saying that if that had happened, and that decaying bodies would have caused the Wall to collapse. Yet seeing that he and the rest of the People's Liberation Army was up against King Ghidorah, he couldn't really be faulted for feeling that.

The Japanese soldier at his side turned around to face him. "Are you feeling all right?"

The Chinese nodded and weakly said; "I am feeling well, thank you. How are you feeling?"

The Japanese Private didn't take his eyes away from the vast armies assembled from China, Japan, South and even North Korea, Russia, Australia, the Philippines and beyond on the fields before the Wall. Laid across the field, were men and machines and artillery and all manner of armored vehicles. They were legion because there were many of them. (It would have felt safer if MOGUERA were there, but it was busy with Megaguirus in Canada. If worse came to worst, however, Star Falcon could just reach orbital flight and reach China in less than an hour.)

On seeing all this, the observer said, "I may have been part of the JSDF's Anti-Megalosaur Force but I never imagined that I'd be doing something like this."

The Chinese soldier turned his back to the field and looked back to his comrade on the tower of the Wall. "It will work out for the best friend. After all, with the Monster Wars on, we must expect the unexpected."

The Japanese soldier wondered. "How do you feel about the Dimension Tide?"

His fellow observer blandly responded. "The people of your country have made a weapon that might well be able to end this war with one stroke; it is proof of mankind's ingenuity and of Japan's technological prowess."

But, thought the Chinese soldier, with all the forces here, we're just drawing a snake and adding feet to it with that piece of stolen Mysterian technology. And why the hell does it have to be Chinese soil, eh?

After a cursory scan to see if anything had changed, the observers looked out to see an Australian army chaplain offering prayers to Australian and Filipino troops. They strained their ears and heard the chaplain say that just as there was a time for peace, there was also a time for war and that it was by their arms that God would "deliver us from evil." As a boy, our Chinese observer had been told that some men pray for a miracle while heroes fight for one; in others words, he was a godless atheist. That brought to memory two things. One was that whoever came up with that saying about miracles was a total idiot in that if he said that, then he clearly didn't believe in miracles at all. The other thing recalled was the justification given for prayer all through the Monster Wars, especially in the terrible recent months: we can at least save our souls.

The observing soldiers then looked through their binoculars and saw blue and white energy beams shoot across the sky; if they weren't mistaken, those planes belonged the White Heron Squadron, Japan's elite fighter group. With them were DFE Type 93 Maser Attack Planes. At that, the two men gasped and called headquarters because what they had seen could only mean one thing; King Ghidorah was coming.

But a few miles away in Beijing, overlooking Tiananmen Square, a certain band was listening intently to these reports from the Great Hall of the People. This was the headquarters to which the two soldiers had reported; however, this band at HQ was alone because the city had been completely evacuated. This had been done for fear that the whole city would be massacred, not just the Square, if the DT failed. As for this band, at a long table facing a large screen with pictures from the front and with technicians with computers at their sides, the leaders of China and beyond were there, watching the events as they unfolded. Sitting there were China's Premier, Secretary General Santos, Director Goodhue, Commander Aso, Professor Hayashida, Princess Salno and others.

Among them, Santos saw the demon lured to the field of battle by maser planes. Meeting it were General Ming Tien of the PLA and Commander Kuroki of G-Force Asia as they led the forces of the world and of the Middle Kingdom against the three-headed monster. In terms of men, it was an even greater force than had been assembled at DC to battle the Prince of Skyllans yet in terms of monsters, it was far less. At Kuroki's combined command were more men than had been even at Barbarossa or at Normandy yet even at that they were being cast aside like rag dolls.

The battle raged between King Ghidorah and the humans and all prayed that it would succeed. That it could was possible; after all, the attack plan had been a rather simple one; fire all weapons and destroy the enemy. At Kuroki's command, the order had been carried out and all weapons were being shot; Rolisican Atomic Heat Rays, Japanese maser tanks, American armor piercing DU shells, even if it was just a private with a pea shooter, everything available was sent against the demon. King Ghidorah raged at this; his shield was able to block most of the energy beams but it was useless against non-energy weapons. Shell after shell shot through the skin of his wing or pierced his skin to explode underneath; this was done even as the energy beams that managed to get through his shield burned into his flesh.

Despite this, however, it was like swatting flies for the demon. Firing his Gravity Beams and Crimson Lightning at them, he was able to kill many of the humans yet there were still more against him. The three-headed monster's rage grew at this and he went mindless with a berserk fury lashing out everywhere at once. It really was like swatting flies in that there seemed to just too many for him to kill.

He killed nearly a thousand soldiers with a fireball; he destroyed three divisions of heavy artillery with his Gravity Beams; he did all this and more. Many men there felt themselves growing weaker by the second and knew that it was the demon's Taint; they knew that unless they fell back, they would die in days, if not hours. They had been warned of this, the men there had told that this might well be a suicide mission, especially with that the DT might do. They knew the risks and were ready to take them regardless of their fates because it's not like a soldier can expect to live forever. The love for their fellow men and for their world that drove them to do this was great; so great that the demon's Fear had no hold on them.

However, another thing a very great hold on the demon! The gargantuan Bigfoot Yetrigar came up from behind and brought his fists crashing down against King Ghidorah's back and sent him to the ground. The Prince of Skyllans immediately turned around and sent his enemy staggering back with a kick to the gut; he was paid back with a right hook and a head butt. The demon fired a Triple Beam but despite pure agony, Yetrigar raised his arms and blocked it. With arms bloody and smoking, he roared and charged the demon.

Back at HQ, Salno saw this on the large screen and heard the giant snowman's roar; what's more, she heard it and understood. "Commander Aso, Yetrigar says to have the men pull back. He says that he'll take it from there until Dimension Tide is ready." Aso nodded and relayed the order to the men in the field. As for them, on seeing their monster backup engaging the enemy, Kuroki told the DFE forces to fall back but to be ready to resume the assault a moment's notice. It was something that the men gratefully did and they went back behind the lines to see the two giants do battle and what a battle it was.

Lashing his heads from side to side as if they were monstrous cat-o-nine-tails, King Ghidorah left Yetrigar bruised and bleeding from the onslaught; he returned it with a huge boulder he wrested from the ground. However, the Prince of Skyllans managed to dodge it and struck with a roundhouse tail whip. As for the onetime snowman, he was left with bloody gashes across his chest from spiny clubs and he clutched at his wounds but he refused to fall. He ferociously clawed and bit regardless of how he was killing himself with the demon's sheer presence. Filled with his righteous wrath he injured the staggered demon yet the enemy just grew stronger from this violence and hatred and was ready to strike back.

Meanwhile, from high in the sky, Gryphon was on route towards the battlefield with weapon in tow and was ready to deliver death from above. In it Major Kiriko Tsujimori—she had since been promoted from her rank of Captain—and the rest of the crew were in their black and blue flight suits. She received the words from her F-18 Raptor escort that they were on target and she spoke into her comm-set. "Tsujimori to base, Gryphon is in the air, in range, and awaiting instruction."

In the war room, the chief communications officer that heard that said, "Roger, break formation and head to target." Tsujimori's canard winged plane did so and the communications officer got up from his chair to look at the Secretary General. "Sir, they're breaking formation."

Santos nodded his understanding on hearing that. Meanwhile at the Great Wall, the two observers received word from their comrades and reported that they all had visual confirmation of the Gryphon; it was now hovering in place and waiting for its orders. The Chinese soldier reported from his locale "Base, tracking monitors are online and we are engaging visual recon."

At the war room, the large screen flared with the greenish images seen at the wall and the officer said, "Your highness, the Gryphon has confirmation."

Salno nodded and spoke into her headset. "Yetrigar, the Dimension Tide is ready to fire. You have to take King Ghidorah out now!"

On the battlefield, the mighty monster heard this from the transmitter placed in his ear and roared his acknowledgment; back at HQ, Salno fairly flinched at the sound. The giant brown furred snowman stepped up his assault and sideswiped the enemy even as he clamped his teeth onto the King of Terror's wings. Ghidorah shrieked as he felt his wings snap under the strain and he passed a current of electricity through his skin in retaliation. Roaring in utmost agony, Yetrigar pushed through the pain and closed his huge ape like arms around the three-headed monster and held tight; with that, he let out a strange and hideous shriek.

"What!" cried Salno. "Yetrigar, you can't be serious!"

"What is he saying?" asked Commander Aso.

Tenzin Yetrigar had been Salno's friend, her best friend, but on making himself the monster that stood against King Ghidorah, he had told her that if worse should come to worst, then sacrifices would have to be made. As a leader, Salno knew those painful words all too well. She saw that she could hold onto him for only so long, even now he was growing weak and sick; she saw blisters and boils form all over him and that blood was coming from every orifice. She was pale and trembling and the words spoken as she wept were weakly said. "He's saying 'Fire while I have him. Do it now, take us both.'"

Aso nodded to the communications officer. The man spoke to Tsujimori. "Launch code confirmed. Alpha Zulu 689er, that is your code."

At that, the plane shot forward from its stationary position towards King Ghidorah and Yetrigar, ready to make the kill. In the Gryphon, the crew punched in the code into their weapons system's computers thus making the bomb bay doors open wide and lower the Black Hole Gun into position below the plane. That was done even as Tsujimori engaged the ships tracking devices. "Laser targeting locked on. He's in our sights and we're good to go."

In the war room, the same communications officer looked from his computer tracking station. "Mr. Secretary General, we are locked on. Do you wish to deploy?"

At these words, Santos didn't move, he didn't breath. Almost shaking, he just looked to the image on the screen broadcast from the satellite above; strange, it was almost like an old video game with its beeps and boops. It just showed a triangle headed towards two round images, a far cry from what was about to happen. Santos felt a cold sweat on his brow and his stomach turn.

On seeing that the Secretary General was making no movement, Director Goodhue looked to the man and said, "Mr. Santos, if you wish to deploy, the time is now."

Miguel Santos heard that and his throat was dry. He tried to give the order but couldn't bring himself to do it. With that, Commander Aso leaned forwards from his chair and placed his hand on the man's shoulder. "Mr. Secretary General…"

Squeezing his eyes shut, Secretary General Santos said, "Deploy."

Tsujimori heard this over her comm-set. At that, she grimly nodded and pushed the button. "Here we go."

The Black Hole Gun fired the Dimension Tide and the Gryphon peeled away as fast as it could. In the war room, Santos heard that the bird was away and the observer's voice over the communications systems that it was in flight. Just as before, the DT was shot out as a shimmering, transparent sphere that flew in a straight path, noiseless as a ghost and just as haunting. As it reached its target, King Ghidorah struggled and writhed in Yetrigar's seemingly unbreakable grasp, yet it was just as he was about to break free that he looked up and saw what was coming to face him.

Santos shook his head and said, "May God forgive us." That was when the sphere noiselessly exploded in a ball of light.

Nothing seemed to happen at first and yet all of a sudden the sky opened up to show a black circle. With the opening of the black circle, a great wind of tornado force began to blow and it sent everything near and far flying upwards and away. Stones and shrubs were torn from the ground and soon even men and machines were pulled away into the abyss. Determined that the destroyer of his people would perish alongside him, the dying Yetrigar rallied all his remaining strength to hold King Ghidorah in place to keep him from escaping. As for King Ghidorah, he bizarrely used his gravatic control to anchor himself to the ground in an effort to keep himself in place for what would come. That was because he had realized what it was that the humans had sent against them and so felt no fear. Instead he knew only mad joy because the foolish humans were sending against him a weapon that would give him the keys to doomsday.

The wind increased and everything grew to be a blur as everything was sucked away into nothingness. It just grew blurrier and blurrier until everything went black. On the battlefield, the observers, men trained to see and record, felt a growing panic as they saw the black circle grow and begin to engulf everything as it came towards them. More and more went flying upwards as the hole in the sky swallowed all there and no matter what anyone did all shot towards the sky. In the war room, where Santos and the rest of those at his side were confused as they saw this on the screen and were even more confused when they saw it go blank.

Dour and tense, Secretary General Miguel Santos had a grim look on his face and asked, "Can we confirm that King Ghidorah was destroyed?"

The communications officer immediately looked to his men and said, "Get that tachometer on line! We need confirmation that King Ghidorah's been destroyed!"

A uniformed man nodded. "Yes sir. Red Arrow Alpha 9er 723, can you read?" He heard a garbled message from the Chinese observer. "Please repeat, you're breaking up."

The man at the wall barely came through to the war room. "We have lost visual."

"Roger that, we need visual confirmation that King Ghidorah has been destroyed."

At the Great Wall, the observing soldier and the men under his command rebooted their machine and after some false starts, managed to beam the images they saw back to HQ. However, what HQ saw was a ghastly scene of devastation, desolation, and destruction. The only words that could describe what had happened were those of an American Naval officer when he looked on the first and only time that nuclear weapons were used in anger. In the Hiroshima of 1945 he said that there was a sense of deadness, the very essence of death in the sense of finality with no hope of resurrection. The ground was gutted with a horrific gouge several hundred, perhaps even a thousand feet deep and past that, the land was scoured completely bare. The air was clouded with dust so thick and fine, that visibility was almost non-existent. Beyond the depression, every machine had been turned into a twisted deformed hulk.

But worst of all was what had happened to the men that had used them because now thousands of soldiers were nothing but skeletons protruding from powdery dust. That was because their flesh had been torn from their bones leaving them to die most gruesome deaths; this was seen how alone in the center of the depression, were the mammoth bones of Yetrigar. In fact, as far as the eye could see, there were only skeletons in the dust. They were dead because all things there were dead with no hope of resurrection.

It was like when Jomungand, or Reptilicus, had been beaten in Copenhagen back in the sixties in that although the three-headed monster had indeed been defeated it was done so at a terrible cost. At this, the whole room grew silent and many people there took off their hats in a token of respect. Commander Aso had already taken off his hat and was again reminded of the price of victory. With an angry tone in his voice, he said, "Yeah, we won."

After a time, a communications man found his voice and forced himself to do his job. "Observation station alpha, can you confirm that King Ghidorah has been destroyed?"

At the Great Wall, the Chinese soldier angrily brushed the grime from his face as he went to do his duty, increasing the magnification on his electronic telescope and scanning through dust and death. At first, he could see nothing but then he saw a shadow moving in the mist. He squinted and saw it was a gigantic thing with wings… something with two, no, three appendages from on top. From behind seemingly came a pair of tails… oh no. The observing soldier felt himself go stone cold and begin to shake. In response to the question given him he said in a weak and broken voice "…Ghidorah… remains. I repeat… Ghidorah remains…"

As the image went on screen there was a collective gasp among all those in the room. There was the demon Prince of Skyllans, the destroyer of worlds, the devil's hammer alive. He seemed even bigger than before and because he in fact was. He was now some two hundred meters tall and more powerful; this was clearly seen in the demon's appearance. Just as he had changed after the destruction of Apophis, so was he changed now in how he appeared. Down each of his three necks was a row of spines and his eyes shone red with dagger like pupils made of darkness. His three heads seemingly sported beards of horns and his three faces were twisted and deformed. Coming from the outer heads were antler like horns, two large ones from the back and a small one curving on the forehead; in the middle head, the main horns were especially large and twisted and branching.

What had happened was that the humans had sought to destroy him with the force of gravity because that was how a black hole works. It is odd how these things happen but just as Satan was once the brightest object in the heavens before he fell, black holes were once stars. When some stars die they peacefully fade away while others collapse in on themselves and in doing so, create so much gravity that they become an all devouring, all destroying abyss of darkness from which nothing, not even light can escape. The destructive power of these fallen stars is so great that they tear a hole into the very fabric of reality and open the doorways to other realities. That is how a black hole works and that was why King Ghidorah was still alive.

King Ghidorah had power over gravity; that was how his beams worked and that was how he was able to levitate himself through the sky. He was also an energy absorber and survived by "eating" various forms of energy. The two things combined meant that the three-headed monster had been able to reverse the Dimension Tide's destructive effects and absorb its power into himself. Thus far from being injured, he had only been made more powerful. Though they wouldn't learn it until later, the evil one was made so powerful by this that he could bring about the final destruction of the cursed Earth and claim final victory.

All the generals and leaders had done had been in vain and all those brave men had died for nothing. It was then that they all realized that King Ghidorah really could not be defeated and that it really was the end. It was the end for all of them. The men in the war room all saw this and could only feel fear at what they saw. As for their leader, Santos saw this on the screen and saw the demon seemingly dancing in the sky, issuing a mad cackle as he did so. "He's laughing at us…" Santos shot up from his chair and slammed his fist to the table. "He's laughing at us!"

With that, he just stood in silence before his next words. "Call the Gryphon back."

Goodhue gasped, "But sir, it must have misfired, next shot we might have more luck. We shouldn't just give up on this!"

"I said call it back!"

All was silent until Aso said one word. "Abort."

Some people just cursed and some grumbled and some scrambled at the officer's words of issuing the abort codes that this was an abort, a full abort.

It was over… it really was the end. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Three

At Area 51, the people were on edge. That was because ever since King Ghidorah had arrived, the dorats kept at the secret base had grown increasingly savage and had begun to mutate, despite the best efforts of Professor Rosalinda to get them back to normal. Some of the more dangerous of the infant Ghidra had been killed as a result of this; with the recent escalation of the Monster Wars, there had even been talk of killing them all to prevent any more King Ghidorahs from cropping up. Rosy, however, had opposed this out of love for her "babies," or so they had once been, and had said that if they couldn't cure them, that then they should just lock them away. What happened next as a result of what had happened last would put such feelings to the test.

At the mythic base, people were just going about their respective businesses and the like when it happened. In a certain part of the base, a large explosion rocked a hallway and the lab coat wearing scientists were all thrown to the ground. On getting up, the people there gasped and panicked as they saw a hideous three-meter tall, two headed green dorat come out with thick haze from a huge hole in the wall. A few people weren't fast enough and the ravenous monster managed to grab hold of them and eat them. One of the Area 51 scientists managed to keep his wits about him and ran around a corner as he pulled out his cell phone. "General? …General Spielburg thank God its you!"

"What is it?" asked the concerned military man as he sat as his desk. "Is about that explosion that just happened?"

Even as the scientist heard the old soldier's remark, klaxons began blaring. "It is sir! The Dorats have escaped! There on the loose and out for blood!"

"You damn egghead, are you serious? …My God, give me your coordinates so I can send in a security team and… Hello? Hello?"

The General's voice rang out from the phone thrown on the ground but was too late. Even as the cell phone rang again and again, there was the blood curdling scream of a man and the horrific screech of a monster. With that, a spray of blood splattered all over the phone and the floor.

At that moment and not so far away, a much more pacific conversation was going on, though one oddly connected to what had just happened. In the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada, there is a small bar and grill owned by Joe Travis and his wife, Pat, called the Little A`le`inn. For years it had been just another dusty watering hole in just another desert town, a town of less than two hundred. That, however, had changed when a man named Bob Lazer went on Las Vegas KLAS-TV in 1989.

In the TV interview, Lazar had told investigative reporter George Knapp that he had worked at a place called Area 51 and had seen alien bodies there. To prove his claim, he had taken people to a black mailbox off of Nevada's Highway 375 where strange lights had been seen in the sky. (However, so many people signed the Black Mailbox, that the owner painted it white. It was still called the Black Mailbox, though.) With that, people began coming and had stopped at the Travis's bar and grill which, bit by bit, become a home for UFO true believers. At the moment the common band of UFO enthusiasts were there engaging in their usual past time: aliens.

"I'm telling you, the government's hiding something there at Area 51!"

A man in a cowboy hat shook his head as he scooped up some salted peanuts from a saucer shaped bowl. "No way, according to 'Super Mystery Magazine' and 'Fate,' psychics have astrally projected themselves inside and they saw it really is just an airplane testing range."

His friend took a large gulp of beer from his mug. "That's what they want you to think. If they aren't trained at Japan's Psionics Research Institute, then they're working for the man. Remember how Lazar knew just a little too much and went on to be accused of being a disinformation agent? Sure the successor to Hanger 18 built stealth technology back in the late 70s and early 80s but its like what Joe Travis here says, that's just the tip of the iceberg. And yeah, I've heard the naysayers go and blab that with all the weird things in the world, from giant monsters and Mu to the Garoga War and Zone Fighter, that the US government wouldn't have a reason to keep it secret. But the feds are a bunch of paranoid weirdos and they're trying to reverse engineer the tech there to advance America's own! It's a conspiracy I tell you. Remember, Emmerich thought that King Ghidorah's sphere was a cache of technology and he opened it?"

The cowboy groaned. "Don't remind me." He then paused before continuing and asked, "Wait a minute, Japan did that with the tech it salvaged from the Mysterian invasion… If Japan did that, then why hasn't the US developed giant robots or maser jets or things like that and why has it kept the Roswell crash secret for so long?"

The beer man took another chug from his mug and responded. "Maybe American scientists are just a bunch of nitwits. But even though America hasn't built giant robots and the like by itself, maybe getting the Roswell tech led it to build the tech it does have. Besides, the Mysterians came with tech for an invasion, they had an armada so of course the Japanese were able to reverse engineer it into weapons and attack vehicles they have. However, I can explain the second part better.

"I mean think of it. The alien ship crashes at Roswell in 1947 way before Godzilla comes and things get freaky. I mean sure, crazy things were happening with foo fighters and Nazi wizards and Godzillasaurus in 'Weird' War II but they were all kept secret. Before that, yeah the public knew about Kong and the Lost World but they were nothing compared to what we we're talking about. The ship lands at Roswell and the Pres. wants to keep a lid on it and hide it from the Ruskies and keep folks from going bonkers. Mysterians come and we all find out that aliens are real but the US government thinks 'we tell the truth now and people will say why didn't we come clean earlier?' It also gives them a bonus."

"That being?" asked the cowboy, his gaze following a cute waitress wearing an alien motif T-shirt.

"If the place doesn't exist then they can do anything they want because those things never happened! Remember in 1992 when an Area 51 employee called Robert Frost got sick? He was burning up and his skin was peeling off and the doc said that he could only be cured if he was told what he got sick with. He wasn't told what was up and he died because the place he got sick at 'didn't exist.' Then his buddies 'John Does I-IV' got sick too and, with lawyer Jonathan Turley, sued the US government to find out what they were sick with. Same thing… it just doesn't exist. Who knows what else the feds are doing there?"

The cowboy took off his hat and looked at an alien shaped salt shaker. "Maybe. Hey, do you want to go through the pictures John Green took of Sasquatch? I printed them off of 'Ben S. Roesch's Cryptzoology' webpage."

The beer man eagerly nodded. "Sure! He's the Canadian guy isn't he?" His friend nodded. "Hey, I was thinking of going to the Area 51 border to snap some pics of Dreamland. Wanna come with me after this?"

The cowboy smiled as he took the pictures from his backpack. "You bet buddy."

The two men poured over the Bigfoot photos. As he looked over them and held them in his hands, the beer man said, "I wonder how Green would perform in Star Falcon?"

The cowboy shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know but I doubt that he could do better than Santos does in that thing."

Speaking of the devil, at that moment, Star Falcon was cruising over the boiling, cauldron like Canadian half of Lake Ontario. American and Canadian Air Forces had seeded the northern coast of the lake with all manner of depth charges and torpedoes in an effort to eradicate the unborn demon spawn that had been placed there. As Tomas Santos, Star Falcon's pilot, looked out of his plane, he grimly noted the mutilated larval corpses that bubbled up from the depths. The plan had succeeded.

After her adopted colony along with her "father," Inagos, had been destroyed by King Ghidorah, the former Meganulon had tried to start anew and had at least managed to reclaim the tattered remnants of the Swarm after the demon had abandoned it. What little there was left of it anyway the three-headed monster had driven it into the ground in the American Campaign of the Monster Wars. In any case, Megaguirus had left her Swarm's traditional stomping grounds in hopes of finding less hostile territory; she'd seemingly found it in Canada. Like some giant mosquito, Megaguirus had tried to use one of the Great Lakes as a breeding pond in an effort to raise a new army for Swarm Wars III. With NORAD tracking her movements as it had King Ghidorah and G-Force North America ready to fight, she had, however, failed but it wasn't a defeat that she would take lightly as the larva would have been a new Swarm for her.

As for Santos, he was patrolling the full moonlit skies around the lake shore and looking for Megaguirus; she was, as of yet, unaccounted for. However, on being alerted by his plane's computers that there was something else in the air, he quickly checked his radar and saw that it was just another C-5 Galaxy transport plane. He craned his neck to look out of the cockpit to see for himself and saw it; the giant flier was undoubtedly bringing in several hundred more soldiers to help secure the area. Good, thought Santos. Although what few Swarm insects that Megaguirus had brought with her north to Toronto, Canada, had been destroyed, there were still a few holdouts here and there amidst the ruined city.

"Land MOGUERA to Star Falcon, come in, over."

The Lieutenant Santos adjusted the microphone of his comm-set and spoke up. "Star Falcon here, over."

Standing on top of the mammoth tank, Fuji spoke up. "Sir, the men have reported seeing something big and ugly running around in High Park but it keeps disappearing. We don't know what it is but high command wants you to check it out with your plane's infrared sensors. As for Glen and myself, we'd go but our vehicle was severely damaged in the last battle. And don't worry about Megaguirus; we already have some helicopters coming in to check the skies. We need you, we'll call you back, over."

Santos unconsciously nodded even as he banked Star Falcon westwards. "Affirmative. I'm heading there immediately, over and out."

The soldier quickly reached the target area and as he did so, he lowered his plane's velocity to better scan the ground. He reflexively turned on his radar and infrared sensors even as he looked out to see the park below. Neither sight nor radar nor infrared showed anything in the night except for brief periods where something flared in and out of visibility. Yet from what he saw, Santos saw that it seemed to be an extremely large, building sized living thing, or a kaiju. From the fact that this was Canadian soil and that it was disappearing at will, he had some idea of precisely which kaiju it was. At this the man smiled.

However the smile quickly disappeared when he heard an ominous buzz. He immediately braced himself for battle when a blur turned into a vaguely reptilian, wrathful, and hideous face covered in a jagged exoskeleton hovering right in front of his plane's cockpit. Santos saw this and opened full fire at the beast but Megaguirus was swift, far too swift, and dodged the fire by a mile. "HQ to Star Falcon, HQ to Star Falcon, Megaguirus is in you area, over!"

The soldiering son of the Secretary General smirked and said, "Yeah, I think I've noticed that. I am now in pursuit of the monster, over and out." At that, Star Falcon's afterburners were engaged and it immediately began a deadly twisting aerial pursuit. Even though Santos had seen Megaguirus before, she was still just as hideous. As if some perverted purple cross between a dragonfly, a scorpion, and a bat, she had a long narrow body whose abdomen ended in a stinger, two long pairs of leathery scalloped wings, red compound eyes, and a pair of pincer like claws held out in front of her body.

The super plane rocketed after the monster insect at top speed back and forth above the skies of the city of Toronto in a desperate cat and mouse game. They quickly saw that they were going east on King Street and that Megaguirus sprinted past the nearly two thousand feet tall spire that was the CN Tower. What they saw was that the bug had used her razor wings to leave a dangerously large slice in the tower so that it could fall like a cut tree and crush Star Falcon as it passed by it. Santos saw this and dived below, thus barely managing to get past it though rubble showered it all the while. Megaguirus saw this and seemingly cursed.

Thinking to go on the offensive, Tomas Santos fired with the Falcon's energy weapons but his enemy managed to duck into the cluster of skyscrapers, ducking and weaving all the while. It had done this sure that Star Falcon would not be able to follow but follow it did, banking, barrel rolling, and shooting all the while. The monster hadn't trained to fly in such an area, unlike her foe, and was thus in major trouble. Angry at how her plan was, in fact, working against her, Megaguirus shot out of the building cluster and up into the air, just above the skyscrapers, with the Falcon in hot pursuit.

But before Santos could open fire, the monster insect commenced a sonic attack with the humming of its wings. Even as the super plane moved forwards, it began shaking and was suddenly frozen in its place; in the cockpit, Santos was safe from the earsplitting attack, but the instruments alongside him quickly began short-circuiting. Megaguirus took advantage of this and rushed forwards and began a physical assault with its pincers and stinger, her wings keeping the sonic attack up all the while. The hovering Star Falcon was quickly being rocked and its outer skin was being increasingly deformed. It seemed as it was on the ropes when all of a sudden something invisible scrambled vertically across the buildings, leaping and fairly ricocheting its way upwards with falling debris to mark its passage. With a horrific thud that barely left the Star Falcon able to hover, it leapt from the plane, made itself visible, and fell on Megaguirus with an attack that sent them both falling to the ground.

With each monster biting and clawing the other all the while as it fell between the skyscrapers, they finally crashed down with Megaguirus on the bottom. As for her foe, it got up and was revealed to be the silver wolf of Canada: Lupis. Looking at his prostrate foe, he began coldly pacing on all fours around her. Slowly and deliberately, the gargantuan silver maned, white streaked wolf looked to see if there was any sign of movement, ready to strike at a moment's notice. On seeing this, Star Falcon used its jets to descend vertically between the buildings near the two monsters. The beautiful creature monster seemed aloof and unmoved by any sign of passion in looking at its enemy even as it kept its tail raised and ears pricked; a clear sign of readiness.

Now out of Star Falcon and on top of it, Lieutenant Santos spoke into the miniature microphone in his helmet. "HQ, you remember that thing you saw that kept disappearing? I found it and it's the wolf monster Lupis. He must have been able to stay hidden all this time because of the full moon amplifying his powers."

Watching this, Tomas he was slightly confused on seeing old lobo anywhere near Toronto. As UNGCC and those who worked for it knew, the mysterious wolf monster had haunted the north of Canada for decades. However, as Santos checked his machine and saw that its weapon's systems had been disabled by the insect's ultrasonics, he thought that if Lupis had stood against King Ghidorah, why not against this enemy? Indeed, Lupis must have been the disturbance that the Canadian Armed Forces had detected swimming from his frosty home in northern Quebec's Ungava Peninsula along the eastern coast of Hudson Bay and into James Bay. It was quite a relief as UNGCC had been worried that they would have yet another monster to worry about.

As for the silver wolf, his vigilance was well chosen when its injured foe groggily tried to force itself back on its feet. A creature with a steel fist and a glass jaw, it was rather surprising that such a fall hadn't killed Megaguirus; after all, it had almost done so to her opponent. The limp and scars he carried showed that despite the months that had passed, Lupis still hadn't recovered from the beating he had received from King Ghidorah. His bloody right eye was just a mass of scar tissue and bones were still broken. Yet such injuries would not stop the beast from protecting his land and those with whom he shared it.

With that, Lupis immediately reared back on his hind legs and held out his front legs, ready for battle with Megaguirus. However, he made no move to finish off his evil and relentless enemy but instead let it get back to its feet. That was because she was helpless and the wolf would kill no one on her knees. On the ground, the insect monster looked up with eyes full of hate to the enemy looming over her; he had done this to her and she saw him motion with his canine head away from the city. The message was clear; if she were to leave this place and not return, she would be unharmed.

The injured Megaguirus understood this and painfully tried to lift off with broken wings. On seeing that his foe had accepted this gesture of mercy, Lupis turned his back on the enemy and walked away, trusting her to leave unharmed. That was a mistake with how she immediately got back up to retaliate. On feeling a pincer pierce the fur and flesh of his back, the wolf cried as hot blood gushed out. He cried out his agony, feeling pain and the sting of betrayal but as he did that, the noble Lupis was filled with righteous wrath and whipped around to fight. On his hind legs, he savagely struck the treacherous beast with the claws on his strong front paws and snapped with his teeth the way a bear would. He gripped one of the pincers with his fangs and shook with all his might thus tearing it from the monster's body. Megaguirus wailed at this and kept up her mad suicidal attack, lashing out with her remaining pincer even as she tried to hook in her stinger. The wolf immediately retaliated by breaking her jaw with a paw swipe.

However, Megaguirus managed to impale her stinger through the wolf's belly to steal his strength and make him suffer. Feeling its strength sucked out of it, the wolf threw its head back as it felt its belly torn up and blood spill out in torrents. It was then that Lupis shockingly looked to Santos with a warning look on his face. At that, the human felt fear and rushed into his plane's cockpit, closing it behind him, and told everyone in the area to cover their ears. On realizing whom it was that was about to do it, everyone did as Santos asked because very soon the wolf howled.

The wolf howl is one of the most beautiful and, at the same time, most frightening things a man can hear. Such a cry came from a wolf a thousand times greater than one of his lesser cousins and the cry was in proportion to its owner. As the howl cut through the city, electronics short-circuited and windows were broken; the effect, however, was far more terrible on those that suffered to hear it. Those that heard it felt it cut like a dagger into their minds and felt all they knew tear apart and turn upside down. Those who managed to cover their ears were fortunate enough to escape with mere confusion and drunkenness. As for Megaguirus, she suffered effects much worse.

Since she was at ground zero and exposed to its full effects, she saw nightmares come to life and felt herself tortured and killed ten times over. Writhing in imaginary agony and falling into dementia, Megaguirus crookedly flew away in mad panic. She felt herself ground into paste, she smelled her flesh burning off, and she saw herself revert to a maggot, tortured and killed by King Ghidorah after seeing the Swarm destroyed once again. It was in this deranged state of permanent insanity that the insect lost all control of herself before finally crashing under the waters of the Great Lake.

With white and silver now stained crimson, Lupis sadly looked towards to the lake as if with a sense of remorse at what it had done. Even so, the bipedal wolf turned towards the human on the machine that had stood against the evil and malformed insect with a pleased look on its expressive mammalian face. Lupis saw that the human was an honorable soul who, along with his fellow humans, had fought evil in order to safeguard the innocent. By that time the human alpha male was joined with the other smiling members of his pack and they all looked to the silver wolf with a feeling of gratitude (even though some of them still staggered from the howl). The silver wolf also saw that the humans had fought not only here but in many places against an even greater evil, the three-headed monster as part of the Monster Wars.

Sadly, it showed from how he winced when he went back down on all fours that this was a war that the silver wolf would not be able to fight. The fight with Megaguirus had reopened wounds that had yet to heal from his battle with King Ghidorah and had even made new ones. With fur hot and wet and sticky from stinking gore, Lupis painfully tried to lick a wound on his front paw; he then looked up to see the full moon and limped off into the darkness to recover under Luna's light. On seeing this, Lieutenant Santos walked towards him full of worry in hopes of making him stay. At this, the man's comrades, Glen and Fuji, held him back. They shook their heads and knew that the wolf had his own ways and that he would heal in his own time. With that, the men there saw Lupis fade away into the night. The silver wolf only hoped that the man that had fought alongside him would be able to win without him.

Meanwhile, far away in the Nevada desert, two friends were at Tikaboo Peak, overlooking Area 51. It was already dark as they got comfortable on lawn chairs and looked twenty six miles east towards with their binoculars. The cowboy adjusted his hat and opened a bag of peanuts as the beer man reached into the cooler to take out a can of Miller Lite, despite the high altitude cold. The pair checked their night vision binoculars; they saw nothing. Well, whatever they were looking for would come soon enough, whether it was an alien saucer or an experimental plane. The cowboy temporarily turned his eyes away from the base and squinted through his binoculars to see his friends in the Interceptors—Area 51 enthusiasts that favored the airplane theory—getting comfortable in their lawn chairs.

As the beer man and the cowboy looked out at the desert base by moonlight, they couldn't have known that the object of their attentions had been under attack from within. They couldn't have known that the escaped dorats were on the rampage, killing everyone in sight—nor even what a dorat was. True, they and the other watchers of the base may have asked what was happening with the lights flickering on and off or was what causing the fires burning here and there. What had happened was that the Ghidra spawn had escaped from their prison and had killed their wardens.

It was because half a world away, King Ghidorah had absorbed all the destructive energies of a black hole that the humans had sought to use against him. As such, his power had spiked in an unprecedented way and had affected all those of his evil blood within the world of Earth. As such, the dorats had become miniature nightmare versions of their "father" capable of nothing but destruction, proving it with how they had killed the very people who had given them life. Yet as it was with their father, that was not enough because it was never enough; instead, they were filled by a mad lust for destruction and they killed and destroyed all they saw. By now, the base was in ruins and the security forces sent to fight the evil had been slaughtered, nearly all were dead and all was lost.

However, that changed for the cowboy and the beer man because they soon had an idea at what happened. There was a massive explosion at the surface of the base that lit the night as bright as day and flattened everything for miles away. The two UFO enthusiasts and all their comrades, near and far, were blown off of their lawn chairs. Their faces illuminated by the light of several explosions rocking the base, they looked on in fear and shock as people there and at the base began running for their lives. That was none too soon as the dorats erupted from the fire and flew out into the sky like glowing embers.

The cowboy helped his friend to his feet and the beer man pointed in terror as the monsters wafted amidst fire and smoke and flew out in all directions. They looked at the monsters and knew that King Ghidorah was going to have a little help. 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Four

A hiss of a maser beam broke the silence. An officer in camouflage turned on hearing that and saw an enlisted man holding a rifle in an aiming position. "What happened soldier?" he asked.

The soldier looked at his commander and slung his smoking energy weapon over his shoulder. The Lagos Platoon soldier walked towards the charred remains of a pine tree and, on breaking off a branch, showed a headless brown dorat twice the size of a man buried beneath it. He wrenched the drooling beach ball sized head from beneath the trunk and held it up by its green hair; the Medusa like trophy also showed a head bud at the neck. "This happened, sir."

"Damn. Leave it there and tell your Lieutenant to organize a search party to see if we missed anything else. Tell him that and to tell three other Platoons the same."

"Yes, sir." The Private than ran off to follow his orders

The Lieutenant Colonel cursed; he had no idea how his Battalion could let something that ugly get so close to Headquarters. He then called up some nearby grunts to place the carcass and the head on a jeep and take it to a pile where they would be incinerated. They got to the destination soon enough and the privates unloaded the corpse onto a fly swarmed pile of carrion; however, flies that landed dropped dead the second they tried to eat it. The Officer shook his head as he saw a pile of mutilated dorat corpses now twice as high a man. For a time he'd just left the bodies where they lay or took trophy pictures but after it was discovered that dorats ate their dead and grew stronger for it, that was discarded.

Back in November last year, back in the American Campaign, they had thought that the Swarm was trouble, now it was just three months later in January and they were using Inagos's kids as bait. Already back in the jeep and having told the driver to take him back to his quarters, he thought to double check that and pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Captain Jordan, how's the operation going? Do we have Them ready, over?"

On getting a response that the giant ant bodies were strewn about the target area but that no Dorats had been sighted, he said, "So far so good. All right, just keep at it and keep your eyes peeled, over and out." After putting his walkie-talkie back in his coat, he put up with the bumpy roads. As he did so he happened to take a good look to his right and saw the forest of aspens, firs and poplars and past them the Canadian Rockies. Should the Dorats hole up in the mountains, only God knew when they'd be able to get them out. If only Lieutenant Santos were still there in DFE Special Ops, he'd have had wiped them out in a week… alas, he'd been kicked upstairs and was now piloting that robot against what was left of the Swarm and after that King Ghidorah himself. The officer knew he couldn't really complain then but damn, weren't the Monster Wars ever going to end?

Sometimes it felt that the Monster Wars wouldn't. Despite the attempted news blackout of the dorat escape, it quickly became global news that shook the world. Yes, it shook the world but not for the better in how Earth was now to be plagued by the Prince of Skyllan's unholy spawn. Such feelings of defeat were especially acute with how keen eyes saw that King Ghidorah was even more dangerous than before. Panic had erupted when the three-headed monster claimed the Swarm and led it to burn and pillage across the land of the free and the home of the brave. Now there were many devils, each one filled to the overflowing with all its sire's malice and cruelty. Being legion for there were many of them, it was as if they had seen King Ghidorah and said, "Why wouldn't we want to join a snake like you, all twisted and ugly and full of bitterness?" Everywhere men could hear and see, it was known that the demon was joined by his children and for it despair grew.

Such feelings were exemplified in St. Patrick's Cathedral, a large and beautiful church right in the heart of New York City; it was on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue to be exact. It was a large and glorious structure that had exalted the Name of God since the day its doors were opened in 1879. Despite New York's being the "city that had everything," it still felt rather strange to see something like that there. A cathedral was something that you'd expect in a place like Cologne, Germany, or Paris, France, not in the New World, not in the United States. And yet there it was, an ornate, pristine jewel of stone arches, stained glass, graceful spires, tolling bells, towering pillars and statued chapels, a place that worshipped God in a city that worshipped mammon. It was there, made to honor the Creator of Heaven and Earth, set in a bustling metropolis that one would think had no place for such things.

However, that was where such a person would be wrong. Far from having no place, the cathedral was at the holy of holies of New York's spiritual and historical traditions and served to offer soothing balms for troubled souls. That was especially true now with the fear and doubt that made all the people that could make their way to the holy place walk in humble procession for it is in darkest times that men most need light. (Said more simply, there are no atheists in fox holes.) Many people looking for something to believe in had gone to this holy place and such was the case now for Franklin Smith.

However despite all the times that the bishop's church had been filled to capacity in recent times, the Vice President was alone there now, alone in the silent dark; that wasn't surprising as it was three in the morning. That was all the better with the solitude that filled his heart; in the gigantic cathedral, he felt like some dust mote for the ceiling of the bishop's chair alone towered more than a hundred feet above him. Yet for all that he had done, and for the man at whose side he stood, he felt smaller than a dust mote before He in whose honor this church was made.

Some ghostly moonlight filtered in through the stained glass windows but it was weak and wound up only casting strange shadows across the vast floor of the nave; all the better for it reflected the solitude that Smith felt as he sat at the center aisle edge of the front most pew. He'd never thought of himself as a particularly religious man, but now he was in the House of God hoping to gain some solace from Him. Despairing in this place, moonlight washing over him, the man looked to the image above the alter and silently asked the same question that all who believed had: why? What sin so horrible could man have committed that God punish the world so terribly for it?

Franklin Smith didn't know, all he did know was that he was frightened. In the darkness, he looked towards the bronze Baldachin that surrounded the main alter and saw set amongst it was the Crucifix and on it the image of Christ crucified. Looking on the Savior's Passion, he asked himself if He, in His sufferings, felt the pain that the world endured now.

"He does, sir."

The Vice President turned around from the pew where he sat and saw the psychic Miki Segeusa weakly standing a few pews away. Franklin Smith was startled and told himself that he must have had been too absorbed in his own thoughts to have noticed her coming. Now that he let himself hear, her steps sounded sharply against the marble floor of the mighty cathedral and filled the entire House of God. Miki was at Smith's side and turned her gaze towards the image of the Messiah saying, "His Father is our Creator and therefore the Son is our brother. That His love is so great that He would give His life for us proves that He shares our pain."

Smith sat unmoving and he remembered how Segeusa had, on her recovery and her desire to help, asked to be sent to New York and the important work that was to be found there. He looked at her before nodding slightly and moving a bit to the side in order to give her a seat; she stood in the aisle however. He looked away and asked her, "Preachy peachy. Why are you here anyways?"

Miki looked this way and that, noticing that some of the Christmas decorations were still up even if months had passed. She stayed quiet for a time before letting her voice echo in the church. "I needed to be here, though I admit that it would be easier for me in a Shinto shrine where I could ring the sacred bell and clap three times. Anyways, I knew that I had to come. Being a psychic, you just feel these things."

Smith managed a weak smile but his thoughts soon shifted. "Miss. Segeusa, I've gone onto notice that ever since the Monster Wars began, you've been all let's rally the troops, let's save the day, let's keep fighting. And from what I heard, you can barely use your powers right now and you're still here. What did happen to your telepathy, by the way?"

Miki sighed. "It's because of how I tried to enter Ghidorah's mind, my mind suffered trauma. The doctors gave a prescription to subdue my telepathy and prevent it from going out of control until I was back on top. A mad psychic is a dangerous one. Without my powers, I've been transferred from active duty to paperwork; with my boyfriend transferred to New York, I decided here was as good a place as any. The doctor said that I'll be off the prescription soon however; the proof of that is seen with how I was able to feel that you needed someone to be with."

"I see. Thank you. Yet despite that Miss. Segeusa, despite the fact that you've lost your powers, you still put yourself on the front line and insist on doing double duty and then some, even after you were almost killed in New Orleans, even after you were almost killed in Washington. Why?"

Miki looked up and remembered the mission that the Elias had given her, a mission of saving the world that a higher power had given her. "It's because of how dark the world can be. I was there all through the battles and there all through the campaigns and have seen horrors to blast my soul in a battle of gods and monsters. There is of course the desire for mere survival, King Ghidorah won't stop until he's killed us all, but there's also more. It's just the sheer principle of the thing. I have been there all the way and in the darkness I have felt despair. In entering Prince of Skyllan's unholy mind I felt fear and sorrow as I never thought I could; I was tempted to give up and lose all hope. For a great time afterwards I was tortured from within and bordered on the edge of madness and even asked the question that I dared never speak."

At that moment, Miki began to shake and held herself because of the thoughts that ran through her mind. "All my life I have known of the darkness in men's souls and yet I never lost hope that that darkness would one day be defeated by the light and that we could learn to live in peace as we were meant to. But when I saw King Ghidorah's blackened thoughts I lost all faith in what I believed in and asked, not can the world be saved but if the world even deserves to be saved. We've both seen the genocide and murder and destruction and atrocities our species is capable of, of man's inhumanity to man.

"Kyle Martin was there when I woke up from the coma my attempt to control that demon left me in. He was the only one I could speak to and the only one who could understand what I would say. He held my hand as I asked him if it was Noah's flood all over again, if God was punishing the world now as He had then. I even asked if God was sorry that He'd ever made us and if King Ghidorah was the new flood that would cleanse the world of us."

Franklin Smith looked up from where he sat at her. Curious, he asked, "And then what did he say?"

"He told me to remember what happened after Noah's flood. The rainbow shone in the sky as a covenant of hope, a promise that the world would never be destroyed like that again. Kyle told me to remember that and to remember something else. He said that if humanity truly is worthless, if we truly are beyond all salvation, then what about John 3:16? 'That for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him would not die but have eternal life'. "

At that, Miki placed a comforting hand on the Vice President's shoulder. "Kyle told me something that his grandfather told him, that if even God Himself won't give up on us, then how can we give up on ourselves?"

From where he sat, Smith tore his shoulder from that comforting hand and looked away. "Faith… that's something that I haven't felt for a long time. You see Miss. Segeusa, I haven't talked to God since my grandfather died. It's funny though that once I was just like you. I remember when I was just some kid fresh out of Princeton ready to 'save the world.'" He didn't see Miki tense on hearing those words. "I left with a degree in political science ready to make a positive change. I rose through the ranks from a paper pusher to a senator campaigning all the while for every bleeding heart cause I could think of. I was so full of hope, so full of certainty; I was so sure that I was going to make a difference."

Miki paid close attention to what the man said, feeling that she was listening to the devil's advocate as she did so. "I fought for affirmative action, I fought for animal rights, I fought for government aid programs, I fought for environmental laws. I did all that and failed every time, kinda sad, eh? That was when I came across my future boss and, at that time, my worst enemy 'El Presidente.' Emmerich wasn't president back then of course, he was the Chairman and CEO of Bio Major… mostly because of daddy's money of course. And yes, Bio Major, the Saradia hating Frankenstein laboratory really is as bad as the tabloids say. Even back then Emmerich was an incompetent fool but in some ways I was an even bigger fool because the day I met him was the day I sold my soul to the devil.

"I met Emmerich, he told me to never call him Devlin because we weren't friends just Emmerich, saying that I could make a real difference if I went to work with him. He offered me a job working for him and I went to work for him, even if it was a toxic waste dump or opening a forbidden meteor or a plasma power plant or whatever megalomaniac scheme he had up his sleeve. Whatever it was even if it meant putting up with his playing God. By then, I was so disillusioned that I threw in my cards with him thinking that at least this way I could do something that was real, something that wasn't an illusion."

"That's why you went to work for Devlin Emmerich because you wanted to avoid an illusion…?" On hearing Smith's words, Miki felt her jaw drop and the bottom drop out of her world. She turned around and glared at him in the marble halls of the darkened cathedral. "Thinking that you can get away with playing God, that's the illusion! Idiots like him having been ruining things for the rest of us since dawn of time with their 'I'm better than you so I'll do whatever the heck I want,' attitudes. We've seen what insane arrogance like that costs us time and again but we're just too stupid to learn from it. Ever since Eden's forbidden fruit, there have just been some things that we were never meant to do or know but we just have to build that A-bomb, we just have to build the Oxygen Destroyer, we just have to build the Dimension Tide, we just have to think it up."

Miki was facing the church's alter when she looked towards the man there with her. She said in a weak and tired voice, "We think we can control the power but we can't. We're not gods, only mortals. King Ghidorah's makers thought that they could control the power and their planet was the very first he destroyed! Oh God help us… we brought this on ourselves."

Franklin Smith slowly shook his head on hearing that. "We brought this on ourselves, that's what Martin always says, the grandfather. 'Says that about Godzilla and other things… Funny, for years, decades, we've bad mouthed Godzilla as being the worst monster of them all, always trying to kill him off. We thought he was bad and then King Ghidorah comes along who's so much worse that he puts bad in perspective. You know, it's really sick of me to say this with you here but I almost wish Ghidorah would attack Japan so he and Godzilla would fight until that three-headed monster was dead."

Miki froze on hearing that and her eyes went wide. With what was happening, it now was seen that there was absolutely no choice and that Godzilla was the only one who could save them… and as sure as she was the chosen one, she knew that the rulers of Earth would at last know that it was time.

Vice President Franklin Smith looked at her with an appearance of concern as she froze like that. He got up from the pew and said "…Miki?" She did not hear him but instead had a smug little smirk on her face as she walked out of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

It was said that paper pushers made the system go round. Well there wasn't a system bigger than the UN and paper pushers made it go round. In some remote corner of the UN Building, a legion of faceless people were going about documents and typing away at their word processors. The entire floor was just cubicle after cubicle and not a one of the people in them strayed from their pen and paper; for one whose bread and butter was adventure, this was torture.

That someone was a tie and collar Kyle Martin and he was working in his cubicle in some remote corner of the UN Building. He was checking documents, overlooking blueprints for new machines, and reviewing kaiju reports. It was nothing new, just some giant boar sightings in Honshu, Japan; funny he thought that they'd all been taken off the big island and relocated to Hokkaido. Good God, feeling his eyes burn from staring at a computer screen, it was only then that Kyle realized what he had been spared when he went straight from Tokyo U to UNGCC front lines.

However, it was there and he had no choice in it so he looked to the computer screen before him and began typing. On checking the report, he stopped on seeing that he needed some information he didn't have so he opened another window and went to UNGCC's official database: Kaijuphile. It was the best monster site on the web; with founder C.L. Werner and webmaster Brandon Waggle nothing could even compete. It wasn't until just know that Kyle realized was so vast and all inclusive, he would have to track down Werner and Waggle and congratulate them one of these days.

In any case, after using Kaijuphile, he quickly finished his report and hit send; on pulling it out of the printer he reached for a pencil to begin proofreading. However, he was just going to get it when he accidentally knocked it to the ground. He reached for it as it fell but as he did so, the pencil began to slow and before he knew it stopped in the air. Kyle's widened eyes tracked it as it began to levitate towards his cubicle's desk; as it gently went to rest on the desk, he cracked a smile. He held the pencil in his hand and began tapping it against his computer keyboard. "All right Miki I know you're there."

The blonde man turned around in his swivel chair and saw the smiling psychic. "And it looks like you got your powers back."

Miki telekinetically pulled some paperclips up and out of their little bin and made them fly through the air in a figure eight. She then made them move in an O-pattern before making them link up and form a necklace to go around her. "Yes Kyle it's me."

He got up from his seat and kissed her. "Are you back to full strength?"

Miki nodded and levitated the paper clip necklace off her shoulders, eyes tracking it all the while, and into her raised hand. "Just about. I'll be back on active duty very soon and with the ideas I have, they'll be glad of it."

Kyle sighed in a most envious way. "Wish I could be there but I'm stuck. What is the idea you plan to volunteer anyways? You seem really happy about it."

Miki immediately brightened even more on hearing that. "I should be happy! If this works then it means that the world is going to be saved. Well, I know that it might seem strange but here goes."

She then proceeded to tell Kyle of her idea. She told him about how it was really an old idea but one that she had kept thinking about all through the Monster Wars. Her idea had finally left the back burner when she had spoken with the Vice-President over in St. Patrick's Cathedral. She had been afraid because of how her plan had been rejected earlier but now she knew that it was time for the plan to come to fruition, that she knew that the plan could work, she just knew it! That was of course if it was approved, she needed Kyle to come in to support it and make sure that it got approved so she was there asking if he would help and so would he?

Kyle just stood there for a time, letting it all sink in. He didn't move and Miki just looked at him slightly worried. She was worried as he just stared away. It was then that the edges of his mouth began twitching as he began to realize the implications and possibilities of the plan's simplicity. He began laughing and he grabbed Miki and lifted her up. She gasped as she was swept off her feet and he kissed her. He said. "Yes! Yes, I'm with on this plan one hundred percent!"

Miki's feet touched Earth again and she could barely keep herself from crying and she hugged Kyle as hard as she could.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Five

"I'm not sure I like this."

The official looked to his comrade with a stern glance on his face. "The Secretary General himself called this meeting and he expects the top UN, UNGCC, and DFE officials to be there, even if it is about that Segeusa woman. It doesn't really matter if we don't like it."

With that, the two men left hallway and passed through the large double doors. They then went into a large conference room where many of their fellow paper pushers sat alongside high ranking officials and military men and all got into their seats. Now, in UNGCC's world headquarters they all looked to the center of the o-table, the same large o-shaped table where they had first met to make a council of Monster War so long ago, where Miki looked around at the people around her. She stood there with a smiling Kyle Martin (those that knew of their little spat saw that they had made up) at her side.

Miki looked around at the G-Force and UNGCC officials there and felt butterflies in her stomach. Kyle however, was confident in her plan and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed back and smiled at him. Having rehearsed her speech several times before Kyle, she knew she was ready and both she and Kyle knew it. Miki knew the plan would work; the first thing she had done on getting off the medication was to telepathically ask the Elias and they had given her their full support. She knew that she'd done the right thing in flying back home and calling this meeting.

Miki saw those that sat there, looking at her and finally knew that it was time to speak. "Hello everybody, I am very glad that you were able to come, so is my good friend, Kyle Martin. He and I are here to present our plan for how to win the Monster Wars." At that, some of the people at the round table visibly laughed or merely rolled their eyes; other, however, actually paid attention. Hoping that those who would listen to her were the majority, Miss Segeusa continued. "As we all know, the world as we know it poised to be forever destroyed by King Ghidorah, the most dangerous monster that ever lived. We have done everything to fight him but 'neither man nor his machines are able to stop this creature.'

"Thinking to stand against him with more than men, we have recruited monsters to our cause such as Yetrigar and Tuol; some monsters have even graciously volunteered their might, such as Lupis and Nessie. Yet despite their courage, their strength has not nearly been enough and they've beaten down time and again. In fact, not a few of them paid the ultimate price. As those monsters died, some of us have gone so far as to ask if there was one monster out there strong enough to defeat King Ghidorah and save us. That was when I noticed something."

With an audible hum, Miki activated a holographic projection map next to her in the middle of the o-table. With that, a semi-transparent three dimensional ten foot wide rotating holographic globe materialized above all their heads above the table and dots appeared all across it. In fact, as the holo-globe moved around dot after dot appeared everywhere across the entire face of the earth, across every country, every hamlet, every mountain and every field. "If you look closely, you'll see that all these gold dots correspond to the places King Ghidorah has attacked; Las Vegas, Shanghai, Melbourne, and countless others that have been destroyed. There hasn't been a place on Earth that's he's spared."

Miki punched a series of keys and the gold dots faded away. After a hum, another series of dots appeared and like before, they appeared across the seven continents; this time dots were in black. "If you look at these dots you will see that they also appear everywhere. These dots represent where Godzilla has been sighted ever since he left Japan at the start of the Monster Wars. And you will also see that when we combine these two maps…" On Miki's command both gold and black dots appeared. "…that they are interconnected." Indeed, nearly all the gold and black dots overlapped until it seemed a mass of one color.

"We see that they always go to the same place, almost never at the same time though. Even though they have only managed to battle relatively few times, we can see that everywhere King Ghidorah has been, Godzilla has gone. He has hunted the three-headed monster all over the world and seeks to kill him, whatever the cost."

Commander Aso frowned. "We know all that. What's your point?"

"This. As the months pass and as the casualties mount, I've kept thinking of a way to end this war. We've recruited monsters so why not bring to our side the mightiest monster of them all? Why not ally ourselves with their King? This isn't the first time that I've suggested this, the first was at the start of the Monster Wars, but that fist time my proposal was denied. Now, more than a hundred million dead and almost a year later, I say that we have nothing left to lose by trying. If Godzilla wants to fight King Ghidorah then why not let him?"

While some people let the idea sink in, the old men sitting there alongside Aso and Goodhue and Hayashida looked at each other and shook their heads or sighed or more. It was with that that Kyle Martin moved in to put his two cents in. Miki had been wise in choosing him because not only was he famous as a kaijuologist but he was also noted for his firm anti-Godzilla stance; his just being there supporting the plan served as a counterpoint to the commonly held image of Miki being a "monster coddler." The reporter's grandson spoke.

"I'll be the first to admit, to deliberately fight alongside the King of the Monsters is a seeming hypocrisy for the men and women of the United Nations Godzilla 'Countermeasures' Center but we have no choice. In the course of the Monster Wars, Miki has repeatedly said that however much suffering our old enemy might cause, the suffering that King Ghidorah causes is a hundred times worse. While her words might be an exaggeration—though not by much now with how much more powerful Ghidorah has become with DT—these are desperate times and they demand equally desperate measures. We have no choice if we want Earth to survive.

"Godzilla has the power to face Ghidorah, if anybody should know that it's us, and we've seen for ourselves that Godzilla will do anything to kill his arch-enemy. According to the Elias, the King of the Monsters was born to defeat the King of Terror and we see that Godzilla, a great evil, wishes to destroy a greater evil that wants to kill us both. Since the enemy of our enemy is our friend, the only logical course of action is for us to team up with Godzilla… especially with how he, if not stopped, will destroy our planet along with Ghidorah."

On hearing that, Miki felt a chill go down her spine. As was common amongst most psychics, she refrained from arbitrarily using her powers out of respect for the privacy of others and so had accepted Kyle's claim of being on his best behavior. Now she had the sinking feeling that it wasn't as it appeared to be.

However, the men and woman sitting at the table felt their curiosity piqued and sat at attention at the kaijuologist's appraisal of the situation. Kyle noticed that and knew he was on a role. "You have the idea. In all their battles we've seen, the two of them have come up even every time. In filming their first battle, Miki saw them beat each other to within an each of their lives and she was frankly shocked that either of the two monsters survived. Godzilla has always had the power to face Ghidorah." With that, the young scientist smiled. "Now with what the DT has done, he just doesn't have the power to beat Ghidorah.

Kyle looked to the men of G-Force and slowly turned around to face all of them. They all smiled at this and he smiled back. "This strategy might not have worked between Kong and Godzilla but it just might work between the two monsters we face. We trick our old enemy to go and fight and then when he needs us to win, we conveniently fall back, leaving him all alone. We have them go and kill each other, and all we have to do is stand back and finish off the one weakened survivor. Who knows, we might not even have to do that if our two dupes do the work for us… Ghidorah vs. Godzilla, if we are lucky then both will die!"

People there eagerly began discussing the idea and latched onto an idea that was genius in its simplicity. Kyle saw this and felt a surge of joy on this; however, Miki, saw this and felt a surge of revulsion on this. She hadn't come for this, she hadn't told Kyle of her plan for this! She saw the ghouls talking all around her, plotting Godzilla's death even as he was going to risk his life to save them and felt her stomach turn. She saw this and shouted, "NO!"

The people in the conference room looked at her in shock. So angry that tears almost streamed from her face, she said, "You can't do this! Do you have any idea of what you're saying? Godzilla is the only thing that can save us and you're figuring out how to kill him? This… this is crazy and don't you think that I'm someone blind to the truth. From the moment I was brought into G-Force, I was looked down on as naïve little girl, a monster coddler." She then shot a withering glance to everyone there… and to Kyle. As venom dripped from her lips, they literally felt her psychic rage; it was an anger that washed over them like scalding water and it burned.

"Yes, even without my powers I always knew what you, all of you, said and thought about me. I'm not over simplifying, if anything you're over complicating. Yes, I do know the destruction that Godzilla causes, better than any of you could ever imagine but I also know what you're guilty of as well. You say that Godzilla is so very bad but if we're so very good then why have we never given him a chance? I've been inside his mind and have seen his memories; he's not the evil mindless raging freak that you've demonized him as. All he's ever wanted is a chance and that was all he ever looked for on Skull Island or Lagos or Odo and beyond but you couldn't care less. All you cared about was killing him. Don't you see what this means? A destroys B, B destroys A, and it just keeps going until both sides are dead. If you were truly as righteous as you think you are then wouldn't you be trying to rise above this hate?"

With all pretense of holding back her feelings gone and her face twisted into a grimace of rage, she pointed to them in cold fury. "You hypocrites are all so busy accusing Godzilla of evil that you fail to see your own, you fail to realize that we have nobody but ourselves to blame. Our attacks _**made**_ Godzilla hate us, therefore if there's anyone to blame for the destruction that Godzilla causes, _its you_."

The speechless men and women stood there in mute shock and you could hear the proverbial pin drop. Nobody moved, nobody even breathed, they just sat there. Almost frightened by her words and the anger that they physically felt from Segeusa, they just sat there, sweating coldly and shifting uncomfortably. On seeing this, Segeusa looked at them almost hatefully from the corner of her eyes and said, "Now come'on. We have work to do. As I was saying about this plan…"

Looking down with a worried look upon his face, the Emperor of Mu said, "How much longer will it be until the son of Manda regains full health?"

"It will be some time before that happens your highness," said the kaijuologist. They were walking along a long catwalk that ringed the large room. Coiled in the center of the room was the coiled colossal body of Quetzalcoatl; coming from it were tubes & needles and walking all around it were scientists & veterinarians trying to heal him. At that the scientist and the king went and walked to the nearest staircase to go down to the actual 'operating room.'

Adjusting the tie of the western business suit he often wore when out of Mu, the Emperor asked, "Can you at least say how long it will take for Quetzalcoatl to recover? If he will recover…"

The two men reached the bottom of the stairwell and walked towards the monster in question. "Don't worry your highness. He's a strong monster and he'll make it back from the wounds he received in the Washington battle… He proved he's strong enough when he fought his way back to full health after that thrashing Godzilla gave him and Tuol back in Africa."

Now in front of the feathered serpent, the Emperor stretched to his full height and brushed his hand across the emerald green and ruby red scales of the snake. "It has been some three-thousand years since we Muvians last saw the son of Manda and we've all missed him. Manda himself most of all, of course. It's somewhat ironic, Quetzalcoatl wakes up after three thousand years only to almost be killed the very next day. First by Godzilla and then King Ghidorah…" In a fit of anger, the Emperor slammed his fist to a table and broke it with his superhuman strength. "By the Great Dragon himself how I hate that demon!"

Looking with one raised eyebrow to the pile of kindling, the kaijuologist sighed. "You're not the only one your majesty. My team and I have come to feel a bond with all the kaiju that we've had to patch up, Yetrigar, Mechanstein, Uchihikra, and the rest. The trio's dead now, however but the Elias have been here trying to get Mothra back on her feet and she's begun walking, or flying, again. They say that their using their powers to revive Battra, premature though it may be; with the Dorat Swarm going crazy on the US and Canada, we'll be needing the two of them just to make it out. As for Tuol, that old Indian priest and his grandson have been giving us ideas on how to fix him." The monster doctor left it at that; he had no desire to elaborate on the genetically altered Muvian snake-men and the like that had turned his laboratory into a sorcerer's den, using potions and incense to heal their master.

"But there is one thing that I do not understand," said the Emperor of Mu. "It's that the United Nations and those that serve it spend more time fighting Godzilla than Ghidorah. Though I've no love for the 'King of the Monsters' with what he's done to Quetzalcoatl, the beast is still a son of the Great Dragon and is the only thing strong to defeat the three-headed monster whom the Great Dragon has disowned. You'd think that we'd be begging him to save us."

"That needn't be the case, your highness." The kaiju vet smiled and, after checking the snake monster's vitals, said, "From what I've heard, the Secretary General has given the green light on Segeusa's plan. Both the Security Council and the General Assembly overwhelmingly approve and we're getting clearance from the Danish government for Greenland to be the battleground."

The Emperor of Mu was elated on hearing that. "That's wonderful! If anybody can defeat King Ghidorah, it has to be Godzilla. However, there is one thing."

Worried, the kaijuologist asked, "What one thing sir?"

"If you surface worlders have hunted and hated him for so long, will he even consider fighting alongside you?"

That was question that one little psychic asked herself.

Her meeting with top G-Force officials was bumpy, to say the least, and many a temper was lost in presenting it. Although UNGCC and G-Force officials ultimately agreed to it—albeit because they wanted to live—and Aso himself had promised not to harm Godzilla after the assault on King Ghidorah, Miki was still worried. It wasn't so much about the latest fight between Kyle and herself and it wasn't so much about Aso keeping his word; though a hard man, he was also an honest man. Miki was worried if Godzilla would stand by their side at all.

She had to find a way to get the second party on board; the plan required both humans and Godzilla working together. One was ready, though perhaps not too enthusiastic, but there was still the question of the other who professed as great a hatred for his enemies as they for him. Even as she was astrally projecting herself to find him, she knew it wasn't going to be easy and not just because of her rusty powers.

Miki finally found him sleeping at the bottom of one of Norway's countless mountain ringed inlets, or fiords. That was because after the monster had looked through his mind, he'd begun swimming south from the Artic and stopped in Scandinavia to eat of its rich fish stocks. However, much to the relief of local fishermen that feared for their catches—and their lives—, he'd gotten lucky and managed to find an oodako there. With hunger satiated, he was alone there and yet while lying at the bottom of a glacier gouged harbor in the darkness that he was met by one other.

"Godzilla, can you hear me?"

On psychically hearing that, the King of the Monsters, he lifted his head from the sediment and moved it through the cold dark water; he opened his mind's eyes and saw Miki there in front of him. From both their perspectives, they were both alone and suspended in a state of blackness for such was the realm of the mind. Looking at her in front of him in the blackness, Godzilla felt some kind of mild happiness. It had been a time since they had spoken; she was worried that she no longer cared for him.

Walking towards his across the blackness, she placed her hand on the prostrate monster's face. "You know that I could never do that." Though, Miki silently thought to herself, she was more than willing to lie to him about that Telepathy Transmitter still on him. "I've come to ask you for help."

Godzilla was unsure. What kind of help?

Miki wrung her hands and looked to the black space beneath her feet. "Godzilla, you know that both you and the humans are fighting King Ghidorah and that both of us have been unable to win. The world is dying and unless we find a way to stop him now, all life will be destroyed. He is enemy to both of us and there's only one choice left: we must join forces and work together."

At that, Miki felt a surge of rage from the King of the Monsters on hearing that. Fight alongside humans? That was unthinkable!

"No!" cried Miki. "It can work. Don't you remember my grandfather and Major Shindo? You've fought alongside humans once before-"

And they betrayed him! Yes, he had fought for the mammals, even risked his life for them, and for what? After his sacrifice, when he'd needed them the most they had abandoned him to his fate. If he were to fight alongside the humans again, what would happen? Another betrayal, that's what would happen! There he is fighting King Ghidorah and then the humans leave him to be killed.

Miki felt some guilt on hearing that because she knew that that was exactly what the men of G-Force had had hoped. However, while she kept those thoughts to herself, Godzilla could still sense some feelings of discomfort emanating from her. At that, he let her know that he felt remorse at whatever he may have caused her now and anything before.

"You're still sorry for what you did in New Orleans?"

He was.

Miki smiled. "Its ok Godzilla, I've forgiven you, any wrongs you might have caused was undone with the lives you saved that day." She then grew pensive and looked away before casting deep soulful eyes towards him. "But then that's not the real problem, the question isn't can I forgive you but can you forgive for yourself?"

The King of the Monsters wasn't sure he liked where this was going but she continued. "You've carried a heavy burden for many years and its killing you. It won't kill you right away because you're strong but every ounce of bitterness and poison you take into yourself, either towards yourself or others, will make the burden that much heavier until one day you won't be able to bear it any longer. That's because if all you keep in your heart is hate then you won't have any more room left for love."

Miki looked into Godzilla's eyes and pleaded. "The humans have all said you're an evil thing that should be destroyed; I know they're wrong but if you keep following a path of hate then you'll prove them right. You were born to be a hero, a protector, but all the anger you've held inside is turning you into something you're not. In telling his stories, Kyle's grandfather called you the King of the Monsters; be a king not some petty bully. Do what's right… it's what Gigantis would have wanted."

Godzilla narrowed his reptilian gaze at her. From the moment they met on Odo, she had always known how to make him tick and this was no exception. However he had never dreamed that the self righteous human would invoke his mate's name against him! Yet he also had a suspicious feeling that Gigantis herself would have used similar words… and that she would have used them in the same way. Did he hate the humans for what they'd done to him? Yes he did. Did he hate himself for what he did to one human? Yes he did.

The question that went through the King of the Monster's mind was did he have more hate for the human race than he did love for Miki. The thought ran through him and he even considered doing what the humans wanted to do him, that was to let the humans and King Ghidorah fight and hope they destroy each other, let Creation be rid of them both.

On hearing those words within her mind, Miki gasped and prayed to God that they were not true. But… if Godzilla did that… if he did that… then what few innocents among the humans would pay the price. The innocent like his beloved Miki whom he had to protect. If the humans asked for his help against King Ghidorah then they would have it.

Segeusa gasped. "You'll going to help us?" Godzilla turned his mammoth head straight at the tiny mammal; yes, he would. At that she felt a surge of joy and utter vindication, as if all the hopes she had ever had were proven, of faith rewarded! Trying to fight back the tears of joy, she smiled and wrapped her arms as best he could around Godzilla colossal head. "Thank you, oh thank you! I knew that this day would come that you would turn around and work with us."

Really, what made her think it would be that simple?

Miki looked at his in confusion. "But you're going to help us, aren't you? … I mean you said that you would fight alongside us…"

Godzilla looked with a withering, judgmental gaze towards her and made his intentions clearly known. Yes, he would stand alongside the humans and fight at their side as an ally… this time. True, in fighting one evil, he had let himself be distracted from another, lesser, evil but once that which was enemy to them both was dealt with, the proper order of things could resume. The war between him and the mammals would end for now but there would be others

Hearing this, Miki Segeusa felt her heat break and she hung her head. "I understand," she said. "If that's the way its going to be then so be it." At that moment her tears of joy turned to tears of sorrow. "So be it."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Six

It was time. Soon the final battle to decide the fate of earth would be waged and so that the battle might be won in favor of earth, its rulers sent the call to everyone. A few had lost hope but others refusing to give in stood ready to stand and fight at the call to arms. Such was seen in the Middle Eastern Republic of Saradia.

It was stiflingly, oppressively hot at the desert camp where the Emir of Saradia was, a far cry from the large, white columned rooms of his air conditioned palace. Even so, despite the suffocating heat and alkaline dust that occasionally blew into the large command tent, the Emir ignored them to focus on the task at hand. He looked to the British soldier at his side as he placed a map on the table, adjusting maps already there and moving aside a mortar shell that had been used as a paper weight. Saradia's leader thoughtfully looked over the charts and let the troop movements materialize in his head. He was watching the maps when he heard the British soldier at his side say, "Well, sir, the UN's been trying to compile a list of casualties and losses in the middle east but information for them and us has been sketchy at best."

The Emir remained impassive and nodded his mustached head as he put his finger to the map. "Well we know that we've lost the Belgian contingent in the Sinai but we might have some reinforcements isolated in the Golan straights."

With that, a bearded Arab man in military fatigues rushed into the tent and hurriedly began speaking. The Emir looked on intently before smiling. The military man at his side was confused and he asked the Emir, "Sir what's happening? What did he say?"

Saradia's leader moved his head towards the British man, the tassel on his fez tossing about as he did so. "He said something we all might want to hear. Follow me."

At that the two men walked out of from beneath their command post but the Emir winced at how the desert sand made the sun's glare that much more powerful. Shielding his eyes, he followed the bearded man and looked around at the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of military vehicles and equipment all around the dusty Saradian desert. Seeing them stretch as far as his eyes could see, he had a tremendous feeling of optimism about him and that was increased as he looked around to the multi-national DFE coalition that was there fighting for everyone. That wasn't surprising as Saradia for years had been one of the few countries able to reach out towards all sides in middle east conflicts. (Yes, there were the ugly rumors of the Saradia Institute of Biotechnology being a front for a ruthless spy network or of virtual warfare between it and Bio Major but neither could be proven.)

Indeed, as he walked he saw Palestinians to his right who held their rifles with one hand and used the other to raise their fists while shouting him encouragement. To his left he saw Israelis in the midst of checking their F-5 Freedom Fighter aircraft, the Star of David painted on their sides, stop and salute him. He greeted both sides and smiled his thanks.

He went past them and got to the merciful shade of the communications tent. There he saw the radio man at his post and asked him, in Arabic, of what was going on. He was told of what was happening and smiled. The British an looked to him and asked, "What did he say? What's happening?"

"We got a message from the United Nations. They say that G-Force has found a way to win and is planning an all-out counter offensive to defeat King Ghidorah!"

The British man looked at the Emir and said, "Well it's about time. Your Excellency, what do they plan to do?"

The call for help was sent to the middle eastern nation of Saradia but Saradia wasn't the only place that message was being sent; that was seen in one country nestled at the roof of the world...

In a spacious room of the Selginian palace, Princess Salno was kneeling in prayer before the memorial of her grandmother, Queen Sulna, as the scent of incense filled the room and wafted around the statue of the Buddha. Though the Princess had sought emotional detachment and self control in the path towards enlightenment, she had been plagued by great anxiety for a time now. Looking at her grandmother's portrait, Salno thought it was ironic that a theocratic ruler feel her religious faith waver. She knew that there had to be some way to defeat King Ghidorah, there just had to be… if only they could figure out what it was.

It was then that a furry Watchika stepped into his sovereign's private chapel. "Your highness, I am sorry for the intrusion but I have urgent news."

Salno got up from her knees and shook her head. Absent mindedly turning a prayer wheel as she walked towards the snowman, she said, "Nonsense Varga. You are my new Prime Minister, it's your job to tell me what has happened. What is the urgent news that you wish to tell me of?"

The ape face of Yetrigar's successor showed a large grin. "My uncrowned queen, the news has just come in that the United Nations has devised a way to destroy the accursed demon for all times and they are asking all member nations to help make it so! I admit that Selginia is not part of the UN but…"

"But nothing!" shouted the jubilant princess. "By the Wheel of Life and the Eightfold Path, if they can do it then Selginia will stand at its side. I want you to call Miguel, I mean Secretary General Santos, this very instant and tell him that we are there!"

Far from Selginia being the only other place the message, the call for help was being sent and heeded across the entire world. Many world leaders—at least those whose countries hadn't been destroyed—were skeptical and even cynical of the latest plan with the failure of Dimension Tide but on seeing what it was they were willing to give it a chance.

In the Defense and War Preparation Building of New Kirk City, Rolisica's leader walked across a dimly lit and crowded room towards a large screen. He stopped and saw on the screen an old tape of many a kaiju fighting and dying against King Ghidorah on the outskirts of Washington DC. Mothra was among them 'twas true but he felt no pleasure in seeing her injured so; instead the man looked to the image of Godzilla as he fought the three-headed monster with tooth and nail. His aides and statesmen looked to him and the leader said, "So the UN plans to have Godzilla fight King Ghidorah and they want us to help the lizard win. All right, when do they plan to attack?"

Watching the message as it was spread around the world from the UN's DFE command center, Secretary General Santos smiled. Watching from a second story tier that overlooked the large room, he watched the military men on the first story floor as they went about their work. He saw them and looked to the huge holographic projection device at the center of the room as it showed a transparent globe that flashed red where someone heeded the call. In place after place, city after city, country after country, despite all it may have suffered and endured, it was shown that there were combat ready divisions ready to help. That was when Santos saw China and its breakaway nation of Taiwan simultaneously appear as bright red bursts on the holo-globe; he would later learn that the two nations chose to offer their aid jointly. Strange, before the Monster Wars, the two countries had been on opposing sides but now it was different because politics meant nothing to a demon. As such, politics no longer meant anything to those people once divided by them.

Looking on this, Santos crossed his arms and for the first time in a long time felt a sense of hope. It was because everywhere, people were working together in a way unseen since the first days of the Monster Wars. It was because now people felt that Santos was right, that if they stood united in bonds of friendship and love, that they really could win, that there really was light at the end of the tunnel. He knew that G-Force was working like the well oiled machine it was and was already working on sight, even as the necessary equipment and generators was being manufactured in Japan and America. The battlefield had been chosen and been evacuated of what few civilians were there; the military people there were ready for whatever came their way.

Santos saw all this and felt a slight chuckle. China and Taiwan working together, who would have thought. Maybe so but he found out why when he learned of a Chinese general who went out of his way to help Taiwan in that time of need. He had done so despite the fact that his men asked him why, why help them if they're not on our side. The General's response was one true for every man, woman and child on Earth; we're all on the same side when it comes to saving the world.

However, while there were those that were in favor of Miki's plan, there were inevitably those who were against it. This was seen in the Twin Towers of Manhattan, New York, where the President of the United States made his residence.

"I can't believe this!" railed Emmerich. He paced back and forth in the Oval Office as he angrily began muttering to himself. "What are they thinking going through with this cockamamie scheme! They've already started it over in Greenland, and they want dollars from American taxpayers to finance it. Frank, it's bound to fail…"

The Vice President couldn't help but recall how he had been at St. Patrick's when Miss. Segeusa came up with the idea. Now, however, Vice-President Smith fought back a slight grin as his boss railed and shouted and stomped across the room. Yet while he did have to put up with his boss's tantrums, that didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy a joke at the man's expense. Speaking through a smile, he said, "Well sir, what if it does work? I'm sure it would be good thing and you'd probably still be congratulated for the sacrifices you made."

"Forget that!" whined the man as he pounded his fist against his desk. "I wanted to be congratulated as the man whose idea saved the world…" Pouting, he went to the window of his Twin Tower based Oval Office and turned to look at the Manhattan skyline "And now the credit's going to go some dumb Japanese women and some crazy lizard."

Smith slowly shook his head and let himself sigh. He had spoken with both houses of Congress in the floors beneath him and they all agreed that the only reason that they hadn't already impeached and fired that stupid sonuvabitch was that they were in the midst of a world war and the US didn't have time to waste scolding a bad president. (Yet it was war time that a good president was needed the most.) The Vice President went to the window next to his master and put a hand on his shoulder.

Thinking to play to the President's—any president's—weak spot, Smith said, "Maybe you could offer token support for Miss. Segeusa's plan. It would go well with the voters."

A devious grin ran across Emmerich's face. "Why should I worry about voters? I mean, with all the crazy things going on, I decided to declare martial law, can't be faulted for that. And since I am Commander-in-Chief of America's Armed Forces, that means that I can do whatever I want now, doesn't it? I can do things such as, oh I don't know… suspend elections indefinitely." On seeing the worried look on his right hand man's face, the President chuckled. "Just kidding! I don't plan on doing that… not right away at least."

Thinking to lift his boss from his funk, Smith said, "Cheer up sir, King Ghidorah might destroy the world yet!"

Emmerich looked to the ground and said, "I hope."

"So there I was, just some raw recruit of a tank gunner, at the front lines," said Aso. "The giant boar was beaten down by the Anti-Megalosaur Force but it was far from dead. Then he charged and since we were trapped, it looked like it was the end. But even though I saw that the commander was dead I knew that we couldn't let that rogue boar go and so I took command and had the crew drive the tank straight ahead. We then shot the damn pig at point blank range, right between the eyes!"

The beautiful geisha smiled at this story. The silk of her kimono rustling as she did so, she picked up a cigarette and placed in Aso's mouth and lit it. "So that was what set you on the road that you're at now?" On seeing the G-Force Commander nod, a seductive look came across the woman's face. "That was so brave… I bet you weren't scared at all not with your gun. Here let me pour you some saki."

"Thank you," said the military man. He bowed to her and toasted her as they both drank the rice wine. If there was something that Aso had a taste for it was the best, and as he, learned the Giyon geishas of Kyoto were the best at what they did. Preparing himself for the last battle that lay ahead, one that would make or break the world, he would need their charms to bolster his courage. It was not unlike how in the Pacific War kamikaze pilots were given last goodbyes by geishas before their suicide missions; this time, however, it was for a less… misguided cause.

She asked, "Tell me then, how was your day in the old city? I'm sure it's a relief from all the hustle and bustle of Edo."

"Very relaxing Machiko. I even had a chance to see a sumo match earlier today, it's been a while since I went to see one. It made me remember." He then grew silent and thoughtful. "When times like these come, you have to go home to remember just what it is you're fighting for. When you forget, that's that."

He saw the cool demeanor fade from her white powdered face for a moment before it was regained. Thinking about that, he shifted on the floor set pillow he sat and gave his cup to the geisha. Looking to the perfect curves of her body, Aso though of something to say and though for a while before he found it. "So Machiko, how is your daughter?"

Machiko the geisha looked to him and smiled. "It is very considerate of you remember to ask. Saeko is fine and has been doing exceptionally well in school, though I'm sure she's not doing as well as you did in your classes when you were a boy."

Aso chuckled. Sometimes he wondered who was in control in these situation, the man or the geisha who flattered him; he didn't know and frankly he didn't care because stroking the male ego was what geisha were trained to do. And if there was something that a regular customer knew was which geisha could make him feel better than the rest. "Perhaps I was a good student as a boy and that is why the plan that we've made to destroy King Ghidorah at G-Force is going to work."

"Really?" asked the geisha. "What is your marvelous plan.?

Aso had no fear of revealing a secret; what was said in a geisha house stayed in a geisha house. "It is simplicity in itself actually and we will wind up ridding ourselves of Gojira as well. We simply have the two monsters destroy each other and if one does survive, we just move in and finish it off."

The geisha snuggled against Aso's frame, the ornaments in her split peach hair rustling ever so slightly. "It is ingenious o great general but what of those who would take pity on Gojira?"

At that a slightly grim look came across the commander's face. He knew that his Machiko wasn't asking a rhetorical question; while the reality was that much of Nippon hated Gojira for all that he had done to them, those who most pitied the monster were, ironically enough, often of Nippon. Most famous of these was Miki Segeusa of course. "I have promised Segeusa that I would not harm Gojira and that I would let him go should he defeat King Ghidorah; I did that to secure her vow of getting the monster to help. It will be a breach of manners to do so but I suppose that I will just have to break my promise to her; after Gojira destroys the monster, we'll just move in for the kill. And no, I'm not worried about her seeing my inside my mind, she's too trusting to ever do that. May I please have more saki?"

"But of course," said the smiling geisha.

In southeastern Queens, New York, it was quite a different scene, though for the two there, a very familiar one. Overlooking the marshlands, they were saying goodbye at John F. Kennedy International Airport—with all the traveling they did, it seemed as if they were always saying goodbye at airports. With what had gone on it was a bit more difficult than before.

"Well I guess this is it Kyle." Miki picked up her bags as the air controller barked that the plane was going to leave in ten minutes. "It'll take me all the way the airport in Sondre Strofjord and from there, I'll take a chopper to King Christian Land."

"Are you sure you won't be needing anything, I mean I could stow away or I…"

Miki gave a weak smile as she hugged him. "No, I don't want you to get into trouble. I checked the plane, it's a eight passenger Cessna jet. You couldn't sneak in if you wanted to, just me and Tomas and his crew and Commander Raschen for the mission. Don't worry, Mothra and Battra have just finished regenerating and reaching imago form, they'll fly escort."

Kyle bit his lip and ran a hand through his hair as he struggled for words. Finally, "Miki about what happened back at the meeting, I didn't-"

He was stopped when Miki out her finger to his mouth silencing him. With a sad, yet patient look on her face, she said, "Oh Kyle, we've had this conversation a hundred times. We… we'll make a way and carry on."

Holding her hand, he nervously laughed. "Yeah, guess we always do. Just promise me you'll be careful."

Choking up, Miki weakly laughed. "I will if you promise me to not to get into giant samurai robots and start smashing cities."

Kyle rolled his eyes and covered his face. "Ha ha, that again. I promise Miki." Cutting through their conversation, they heard the traffic controller calling Miki by name this time. "Go on then, they're waiting for you."

Miki nodded and hugged Kyle a final time. Then, hoisting a large back pack over her shoulder and pulling a camping gear tow bag behind her, she went through the gates. But just before the gates closed behind her, she turned around and offered Kyle a final wave; he saw the Kyle and returned the wave.

Kyle stayed there at the terminal and after a while he went to the large window where he overlooked the tarmac. He spotted the tiny plane as it flew off and he followed its progress as it plowed through the sky. He kept watching it until it he could see it no more and when that happened he put his hands in his pants pockets and he walked away. He had to get back to Brooklyn, his grandfather was waiting for him there at their new house and the sick old man needed his attention, but he knew he could spare a few minutes.

He got out of the main building and walked the distance to get to the nearby marshlands of Jamaica Bay. Hiking along the trails he looked up to the sky and saw all the birds in the refuge and the hawks that kept them from the nearby airport. He let the sight calm him yet as he looked up he saw more than birds and saw a winged jewel and a winged piece of obsidian flying through the blue. "Gods of Lemuria and of Infant Island, take care of Miki for me."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Back in Greenland, the final battle was at hand and the weak and mortal men that sought to profit from it stood at a distance from the final battlefield to watch. A trio of men that hoped to influence the outcome stood not to far off in a mechanical monster that was called MOGUERA. In the robotic behemoth they sat and waited, though perhaps not patiently.

"Boss, how much longer are we going to have to wait?" asked Glen as he zipped up his jacket.

Santos passionlessly looked out of the machine's windows to see the vast snowy field and army camp from over a hundred meters up. Speaking in monotone, he said, "Until King Ghidorah arrives."

With breath freezing, the shivering Fuji sighed as he drummed his fingers on the control panel in front of him and looked to the humming house sized generators strewn in the field before them. "And when will that be?"

His leader saw energy beams shot back and forth in the distance, heralding the demon's arrival. "Any minute now actually," said the commander.

Seemingly immune to the cold, Santos checked the holographic transmitters and saw that MOGUERA was still disguised as a large hill. He then looked to his satellite linked monitors and was not only confirmed of the quarry flying in but also saw that the second monster was less than an hour away. "You know the plan, he comes in and eats that energy. It leaves him doped up and Godzilla comes to destroy him. If it looks like Ghidorah's going to win or if he actually does win, we pick up where Godzilla left off."

Dressed in military BDU and wearing his M-helmet like his comrades, the blonde man scrunched his eyebrows. "So we're only going to get into this fight to play clean up…"

Santos nodded. "You heard it in the briefing. This is going to be Godzilla's fight and we're not going to get in his way."

That was seen in the people down below as they scrambled about their duties, running this way and that. The few still there were doing the final duties for they were the last, all others had already gone to hide in previously made bunkers. In one of those cold, crowded bunkers and clad in a parka, Miki walked towards the radar screen but could barely see it. She took off her sunglasses—without protective eyewear, Artic snow will reflect enough sun into your eyes to leave you blind—and saw clearly enough to look at the radar screen to know that Mothra and Battra were already baiting King Ghidorah to make the final approach. (She inwardly sighed; the injured Quetzalcoatl had so wanted to help fly in the mission.) That was when she heard it.

What she heard was a muffled explosion that made the bunker shake and the hiss of steam as energy beams vaporized the snow outside. Miki fought the urge to go out and look for herself—she'd been told that she had to stay alive and conscious for Godzilla to home in on—and maneuvered around the mob of people going everywhere at once in an effort to make it to the main screen. Once she made it there, she just stood there transfixed. It was if everything froze and the world melted away as she saw the horrific images play out before her on the plasma screen.

King Ghidorah was already there, his feet in the snow and his body low to the ground as he fired strafing shots at his two foes. Snow blasted away by their slip streams, the emaciated Lepidopteron twins dodged the Gravity Beams and rocketed upwards. Increasing his speed to the maximum, Battra made a hairpin aerial turn and went into a death dive towards the Prince of Skyllans. Screeching like a dive bomber as he shot down, the Black Mothra was just a blur as his keratin wings slashed the side of the evil one. Howling more in indignation than pain King Ghidorah turned all three necks and furiously fired a barrage of fireballs at the insect… which is what the insect wanted.

With that, Mothra wheeled down from her high place and flew in downward corkscrew circles as she gave off a shimmering dust. Too angry to notice this, King Ghidorah only noticed when a fireball he shot off ricocheted straight back and hit him. Unprepared to absorb the energy or shield himself, the evil one was knocked back. Enraged, he charged and fired three Gravity Beams yet that too went back and singed him. The demon's sinuous, snake like neck placed his middle head directly in front of his chest wound; it saw the wound was already closing but what had happened? With his anger cooling, he let himself see the sparkles that shimmered around him; anyone else might have called it beautiful but to King Ghidorah they galled him.

It was Mothra's reflective pollen and he was trapped! Unlike the first time when the vacuum of space kept the pollen from doing its work, this time the conditions were just right. That was when Battra flew directly opposite to her circle, in a holding pattern, and cast from his body a scarlet mist, as if it were droplets of blood that hung in the air. The red mist began to have its effects as the wounds that King Ghidorah had inflicted on himself not only stopped closing but began to open further. (Normally, though the anthrax like toxin would leave a foe screaming for death but this was all you could hope for considering the foe.)

Set in hideous gorgon faces, the demon's six red eyes began to glow with hatred for he saw that there was only one thing for him to do. With that, his whole body began to glow as beaten gold and his wings shone as rubies and both charged with energy. Too late to react, Mothra and Battra saw the three-headed monster loose a torrent of Gravity Beams and Crimson Lightning with all his awful strength. The beam attacks, of course, were reflected back on their master and caused wound and welt to appear all over him but as each was reflected back, it kept taxing the duo's strength to do so.

It was a game of chicken, Ghidorah was willing to endure his self inflicted torment but were his foes willing to endure it on themselves? For a moment that was unknown as the King of Terror reflected Gravity Beam after Gravity Beam back on himself and slashing his body apart with his own destructive power. Yes the evil one screeched in torment so horribly that there were those driven mad by it, but Mothra's mystic pollen began to waver and wave erratically. Battra saw this and flew from his side of the circle next to her; in hovering next to her and flapping his wings as he did so, he gave her his strength so that she might hold on that much longer but it was not enough.

With one final unearthly howl that made ice shatter and snow fall, with final reflected streams of gravity and of red lightning to tear open his belly and leave burning blood to poison the land below, the shimmering pollen was broken. Then with diabolic masks on his faces, King Ghidorah moved his three skulls towards one another and fired a combined Triple Beam towards Mothra and Battra that blasted them from the sky. Their bodies sooty and singed and with wings in flames, the siblings fell from the sky and crashed to the earth to be buried under snow and ice.

He looked to them and saw them on their backs and buried in the snow, the area around them melting and their singed bodies smoking. As for King Ghidorah, he was hardly better. To "overload" the pair, he had left himself terribly injured; his belly and chest were slashed and burned, his wings were raw and torn open, the skin was blasted from his neck, etc. Staggering about, and with smoke emanating from his body he had a bad mind—three actually—to go and be rid of himself of the two moths once and for all, but he was tired. The fact that Battra's blood mist still clung to his skin and caustically burned his skin and poisoned his wounds hardly helped. He was so tired and hurt because he could endure any attack save his own.

That was when he looked forwards and saw it, as if in a daze, and looked on it. What he saw were dozens of plasma generators all scattered around the ice field but a few miles away. Grotesque faces softening ever so slightly, King Ghidorah began to hobble towards them, hoping to replenish his strength with all that sweet energy, all that sweet delicious energy. Yes he would go there, and drink his fill, then his would be healed and use his power to smite his enemies. Stupid humans leaving that there for him, stupid, stupid humans…

In the MOGUERA, Tomas Santos saw this and allowed himself a grim smile. He looked to his control panel and connected to HQ. "Santos to base, Santos to base, so far so good, King Ghidorah has broken his power and is going to absorb the energy set out for him. Over."

"HQ to MOGUERA, we read you loud and clear. What is Mothra and Battra's status, over?"

"They were hurt badly but it looks they'll make it, over and out."

At that, MOGUERA's controllers and the people on the ground collectively held their breaths as they saw the air shimmer beneath the demon and knew he was warping gravity beneath him. With his wings moving him across the land for his broken legs were too weak to do so, King Ghidorah painfully moved towards the generators. If he had had any sense, he would have suspected a trap and not have gone anywhere near the generators but Hayashida himself had designed them and even now they were doing their work, dulling his senses and weakening his mind. All that he could think of was of so much sweet energy.

That was made evident when he reached a plasma generator and hovered above it. But although the pseudo nuclear reactor was the size of a two story building, it was dwarfed by the now over six hundred fifty feet tall three-headed monster; that was made clear when King Ghidorah "perched" on it. The demon hovered upon it, his dangling talons barely touching it, and began to siphon off the power, blue streaks of lightning lashing from top of the machine and into the air towards his legs. It was a quick affair as the plasma generator was forced to work several times past its capacity and, after it began to glow, suffered a slight explosion and left smoke coming from out its burnt and molten sides.

King Ghidorah looked at the wreck beneath him and did the equivalent of a mental shrug because he just looked away and turned to another plasma generator. After that, he turned to another and then another, repeating the process the whole while. Back at the bunker, the technicians were slightly unnerved at this. In reality, they all knew that they were just making the wretch even more powerful. At the center of the room, watching it all from the main screen, Commander Raschen knew this most of all. Although he knew that the demon grew more drunk and insensate by the moment, he also saw that with each erg of energy that the three-headed monster absorbed, another of his wounds closed.

He looked to his side and turned to Miki. "Miss Segeusa, how much longer until Godzilla arrives?"

After tearing her gaze from the burned and injured forms of Mothra and Battra, she said, "He'll be here in a matter of minutes, sir. I 'told' him when the plan would be executed and when he should come." The psychic closed her eyes and saw what the King of the Monsters saw in dark, salty water. She saw particles of ice and bubbles of air flow past her and felt the rush of cold water. She then felt a titanic, scaled body breach the surface to inhale a great lungful of air before crashing below the near frozen, frothy sea. "He's in sight of land. He surfaced before going back down below."

A few minutes later, Colonel McDonough came up from behind and to report to his Commander. "Sir, we've-"

"Spotted Godzilla? And let me guess, the observers that spotted him think he might have been coming up for air?"

"Yeah but how'd you…" That's when he turned to see the smirking Miki Segeusa and smiled. "Yes, sir. That's what our scouts reported.

"Anything else soldier?"

"Sir, no sir."

"Very well, return to your post."

McDonough nodded and went back. With that, the Commander looked to the psychic at his side. "You're good."

Segeusa bit her lip as she thought what Moll, Lora, and Belvera might feel at this. "Thank you sir. I had very good teachers." With that, she and the Commander returned their attention to the screen before them.

At the screen, they saw just what it that was happening and it was King Ghidorah. He was going from generator to generator stealing every last drop of plasma and leaving the house sized machines nothing but slag. Yet as he did so, the unholy beast began to teeter and sway; though frightened, Miki went and scanned his cancerous mind. She encountered a swirling jumble that showed nothing but sloth and drunkenness and said, "If Sanno left Orochi drunk with liquor than so will we."

Drunkenly staggering back and forth, King Ghidorah could barely stand up with all the "spiked" plasma coursing through him. His wings drooped and his long twisting necks lolled even as the spines on the clubs of his twin dragging tails gouged furrows in the ice. He could feel nothing and he could think of nothing save taking more of the sweet, sweet plasma into himself. In the very back of his three dark, ugly minds, a strange little thought began to form and rose to that very last dreg of rational thought.

That thought was, in fact, a memory of the time he went and did battle with the Vortakk. They had fancied themselves conquerors and like all planetary conquerors had sought to make an army of monsters. To that end, they culled from the ranks of the skyllans a formidable army that was bent to their will. Yet as was such with those who grew drunk with power, it was not enough. An army of skyllans was not enough, for it to be complete the Prince of Skyllans was needed and so they laid a trap for King Ghidorah. This was what the three-headed monster remembered, that and that the Vortakk had used plasma generators tuned to his energy signature to trap him…

At that sudden realization, the demon screeched in black fury and fired his beams towards the heavens in his anger. He realized that the humans were trying to keep him there for some purpose and that that purpose would inevitably end in his destruction. With six eyes glowing red with hate and three deformed, gorgon faces, twisting into a mask of horror, the King of Terror turned around to the humans and in the command center the terrified humans knew that the proverbial jig was up. As for Ghidorah, he could only ask one thing… they would make a dupe… out of him!

Rage burning away his stupor, the devil's hammer loosed his Crimson Lightning against the plasma generators, thus causing an explosion to rock the whole area. He leapt into the sky and he spun around in the sky from a hanging position, firing his Gravity Beams in ever widening circles, destroying everything they touched. It was what some called a Death Storm and its amplified gravity Beams left all they touched was made into so many smashed atoms. When he stopped spinning and his feet touched the ground, three hideous skulls looked this way and that to survey the destruction and saw it everywhere in the form of broken metal, smoking rubble, and charred bodies.

With that he felt a shot from behind and it hurt him. Intolerable, who would strike the Prince of Skyllans now! As of in response to the demon's thought, MOGUERA came rolling in on its tank tread feet firing its eye mounted Plasma Laser Guns and its chest mounted Plasma Laser Cannon. If someone watching this had stopped to ask, he might have considered the irony in this, being fed with plasma one moment but being attacked with it another. However, neither monster nor machine much cared about irony at that moment and sought little more than pure battle at that moment.

At some 120 meters tall and armed to the teeth, silver and blue MOGUERA was ready to fight and so was its crew. Seasoned veterans of several a Monster Wars campaign and willing to pay any price for victory, Santos, Glen, and Fuji were ready to face down their demonic foe… or more accurately face up. At 200 meters tall, the golden three-headed monster towered over his hated metal foe and sought to crush it like an egg. As he stretched out his wings and twitched his tails from side to side, he knew that if the humans sought to meet him with guile and trickery, then so be it, but let it be known that that would be their greatest mistake.

And the battle was on…

At Infant Island, the Elias were in grim meditation. As much as they had wanted to join their other halves after what happened to them, they had been unable to do so for there was work to be done. King Ghidorah's necrotic presence was poisoning the very Earth he walked on and if something wasn't done right away then Earth would be forfeit, even if he were defeated. That was seen in how it had begun snowing on the tropical island… snowing! The people there had been preparing for a long hard road ever since the handmaidens of their gods had learned that the evil one was coming but it was becoming too much to bear! Some of the islanders even wished for the old days when the land was poisoned by radiation, at least then they knew what to expect.

For now, however, three sisters were deep underneath the soil and stone of the isle in the broken remains of the old temple. Once, it had been center for all worship across Lemuria and its spires glistened in the sun and shone by the moon. Thick with the scent of incense and with the thunder of drums, temple dancers moved their bodies and gave their voices in worship and praise to their goddess and her children. They praised them for guarding them, for giving them the sweet, fair land of their birth, for blessing them with crops and rain and most of all for teaching them ways of love and mercy.

Such it was for time immemorial but the day came that the sun was blotted out by golden wings. As though he were a black moon to eclipse the light, he came and wrought destruction untold on all the lands, destruction so great that civilization had to begin anew. By the time it was done, a mighty continent was reduced to one island and the holy temple that had taken the Lemurians a hundred years to build was made a shattered ruin. Now, the daughters of the priestess of the goddess were there in the lightless dust of the ruin.

There, amidst broken stones and fallen pillars, they three stood atop the stone alter where a cross was inlaid inside a triangle. It represented a trinity of virtues and each diminutive sister stood at one point, Belvera at Courage, Moll at Wisdom and Lora at Love. As the trio always did, they levitated the shield of their father between them, touching it with the three divided blades of their mother's sword; absorbed in their magicks, they shone strange colors and illuminated the darkened place they were in. It was then that all of a sudden that they felt a shot of agony go through them that made the scream and fall.

They all fell, clutching their swords and with the Shield cast aside but they met the effort to rise up. Though nauseous, Belvera was the first to get up and on seeing her sisters still on the ground, she immediately rushed to their side. She saw that Moll was moaning as she stirred about; seeing that she would survive, she went and checked Lora's pulse. Though Lora herself was exhausted, her pulse and breath were still strong. The middle sister forced herself to her wobbly feet and rushed to the youngest sister when she saw that she had yet to get up.

"Lora! Lora, are you all right, can you hear me?"

Though pained, the baby of them began to sit up and winced at the yell. "I'm all right. Just don't yell."

Blue dress rustling as she shrank back, Moll bit her lip and said, "Sorry."

Belvera helped her little sister back up and the little sister said, "Its ok Moll but… what happened? We were trying to reconnect broken ley lines and get Earth's mana flowing again when…"

"When the final truth was revealed to you my daughters."

On hearing a voice unheard in 12,000 years, three sisters turned as one and saw their mother, Titania the Dragon Queen, and their father, Oberon the Lord Elias. Unable to believe her eyes, Lora walked up to them and hesitated, as if afraid to touch them. "Mama, daddy."

She stopped and did not move just as her sisters did not move as they saw these visions as well for visions they were with what was seen. The diminutive pair was seen to shimmer and to be transparent and made of pale light that shone; they were ghosts that stood on the alter before the three sisters. Holding hands as they walked atop the cross of the trinity, it was plain that they would have been a magnificent sight in life with flowing robes and chains of gold and jeweled crowns on their heads. Alas, they were not alive and were only capable of inspiring fear… except in the hearts of those whom they loved because true love is greater than fear.

Overcome by feeling and with tears in her eyes, Belvera rushed to hold her father tight but he held up his hand and shook his head. With a sad look on his face, he said, "I am sorry my dear sweet child but that I can not do. As you see, neither your mother nor I stand as flesh and our time here is naught but a short one."

Moll nervously strode to her Titania and said, "Mother, my sisters and I have missed you so for all these millennia. Is it time for we three to join you in the land beyond?"

"No my little one," said the Dragon Queen as her ghostly hand caressed her daughter's cheek. "The time has not yet come for our family to be reunited forever."

Then her face grew dark as she contemplated her feelings. "Not yet anyways."

Frightened, Lora asked, "What do you mean 'not our time yet?' What's the matter?"

"The demon, that's the matter." The three sisters' ghostly mother turned away from them so that they would not see her cry. "The humans have fought valiantly against the enemy and the plan they brought against him now was especially clever in its simplicity. Bait the evil one with that which gives him his simulacrum of life and leave him drunk and unknowing then call he whose birth I implored to come. With that, the champion of the Great Tyrannosaur would come and avenge his sire's children against he who killed so many of them."

Oberon then shook his head as he placed a hand on his eldest daughter's shoulder. "King Ghidorah is a cunning and wily thing for he has seen through the trap laid for him and has escaped from those who would destroy him. He saw that men and monsters laid that trap for him and reasoned that it was to leave him there for a final battle against the Great Tyrannosaur's champion.

"The three-headed monster has decided that there will be a final battle but he will choose where it will be, nobody else. Not only that, but the source of all our woes has also decided that it will be about more than just Godzilla and he. On this island, there has been hunger and disease and now a cold time has come; what has happened here will happen a trillion fold across the Earth should evil win. The final strike shall not just be against Godzilla but against Gaea herself."

At that, Belvera, Lora, and Moll collectively gasped. Able to telepathically feel their parents fears, the three of them had known that something was the matter but it was only until the last word slipped from their father's mouth that they realized just what it was they were up against. For a time every last one of them went completely pale, even their lips were white, and they began to tremble. Always the mediator and most balanced of Oberon and Titania's daughters, it was Moll that finally spoke up.

"You don't mean to saw that King Ghidorah will use the power of World Extinction?"

"Yes." With a sour look on his face, her ghostly father looked away. "…Oddly enough, it was the humans that gave him power enough to do it now."

" …But, but he can't! Not even he would do such a thing!"

Titania frowned. "Oh wouldn't he? He killed those that gave him birth didn't he? He murdered his own children, didn't he? He put out the light of all the stars his world could see, didn't he? He killed me, didn't he!"

Her husband laid a comforting shoulder on her hand and gently chided her. "Titania dearest," he said wagging his finger at her, "calm down. He killed the both of us when he destroyed Lemuria; seeing how you were just another face in the crowd to him, it wasn't personal."

Angry tears on her face, she sullenly said, "Oberon, I doubt that its 'not being personal' meant anything to the victims of Unit 731 as they were tortured to death in the name of science."

"Perhaps dearest but we mustn't let such angry feelings get in the way of finding solutions to the problem. Rest assured that while we ourselves won't be able to affect that solution there will be those that can."

Lora looked to the two who were king and queen of their race, or the shades thereof, and whispered, "Surely not us. We have done all we can but we are not the ones that the Creator has chosen to save this world He made."

Now more composed, Titania the Dragon Queen answered. "No child, it is not you, you are not the chosen one. Remember to whom the mission is entrusted, it is entrusted unto the beauty who sees into the hearts of men and the beast that will smite God's enemy. I foresaw this future in the last days of Lemuria. The vision was entrusted to me by the Supreme Being of how the Age of Men would end and the Age of Monsters begin. Moll, Lora, Belvera, that the champion of Draco Deus would rise up was a vision which I entrusted to the three of you when your father and I died, and for millennia you kept it until the dawn of the Monster Wars. In the future I saw, men and monsters fought alongside one another as they did in the time of the Ancients and they triumphed and the world was saved."

"Or so your mother said." Oberon ran his hand across his eldest's cheek before kissing the younger ones on their foreheads. "That was the prophecy but as we all know, prophecy can be a tricky thing. The prophecy that my Dragon Queen received from the Dragon God is as such but while a prophecy might say what it means, it might not mean what it says. The world can be saved my daughters three as the prophecy says, if you make it so.

"Even now the devil's hammer flies to an isle of man made mountains and of towers forged of glass and steel. It is there that the demon will bring forth the final destruction of this planet unless he is stopped once and for all. You must quickly tell the chosen one what lies ahead of her and that unless she passes the final test… all will be lost."

Confused, Moll asked "Final test? What final test? Mother, father what's happening, what's going on?"

Titania took Oberon's hand and stepped back, fading as they did so. As one they both said, "That you three must divine for yourselves or it shall not be divined at all. Know that the end is at hand but that it can be the end for this world of the devil that would destroy it. Farewell."

With that, Moll, Lora, and Belvera were alone once more in the temple sanctuary.

With a soul made of love, one clad in blue and silver said, "We have to go tell the Chosen One. She's counting on us, we can't fail her." Lora unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

With a mind full of wisdom, one clad in red and gold said, "We know what to do and how to go about doing it. We mustn't give in now when we're so close." Moll unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

With a heart forged with courage, one clad in jet black said, "We haven't given up yet nor will we ever. The three of are going to fight to the end, no matter what!" Belvera unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

Looking at three crossed swords, the eldest said, "Are you with me? Will we fight to the end?"

Two sisters that proclaimed the light both said, "We fight to the end."

One sister that looked from the dark said, "I can't hear you!"

With both younger and middle smiling, they yelled, "We fight to the end!"

At that moment and doing far less dramatic things, Kyle was in Brooklyn, New York, in the small house he and his grandfather were staying in. Funny, while UNGCC's scientific division wasn't strictly military, it was still paramilitary and that meant the adage of an army man traveling was still true. The thought came to him because though he and his grandfather had been at the new house for a month, they'd yet to finish unpacking with all they were doing. Proof positive was in how he was going over the last boxes left in the living room. True, what little furniture that could be scraped together was in place and the computer was hooked in but the wooden floor was still bare and so were the walls. And there was still a pile of boxes there that were filled with junk!

Thinking to remedy that, he'd decided to spend his day off unpacking boxes; he'd been at it the whole morning. However, there was one box marked valuables that had given him more trouble than it was seemingly worth so there he sat on the wooden floor, trying to open it with a pair of shears. When it at last burst open, Kyle looked inside and felt a sentimental smile as he pulled out his old GI Joe and Transformer toys. Of all the things grandpa could have salvaged when the old house was destroyed back in Chicago, thought the kaijologist. Even so, after gazing across the empty house to see nobody was looking, he had the soldier and the robot in his hands and held them right next to one another.

Doing impressions, he said, "'C'mon Optimus, its time to fight Cobra and the Decipticons!' 'Right behind you Duke!' " After allowing himself a slight chuckle, Kyle gently placed the old toys back into the box and put the box on the kitchen table nearby. Feeling tad thirsty, he went to the refrigerator to pull out a carton of orange juice and went for a clean glass from barely stocked cupboards. As he did so he came across his grandfather's medication and, after pouring himself a glass, he checked his watch. Grandpa was due for his pills but he decided to hold off until the old man woke up.

Drinking from his cup, Kyle leaned back against the counter and wondered if this had been brought on by how his grandfather had gone with Miki to Infant Island a year ago. The old man should have known better than to risk his health like that, he wasn't a young man to be running around. Since then, his condition had steadily been growing worse, especially since what happened to Chicago. At the moment, his grandfather was sleeping in the bedroom and getting much needed rest. With that thought and with a last sip, Kyle rinsed his cup, set it in the sink and went back to unpacking.

However, he had just come across a box marked books and began moving it towards the empty bookshelf when he heard at what sounded like a car crash outside. Worried, Kyle rushed to the window and saw that it was indeed a car crash; for reasons he did not know, he was filled with a tremendous overwhelming fear as he went to and opened the front door to look at Greenpoint Brooklyn. What greeted him was a mad panic that gripped the entire line of row houses from one end of the block to another, a mad panic that took the form of people running out of their houses driving away like madmen in their cars and other things.

Not knowing why, he ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, hands quivering as he locked it. Trembling uncontrollably he ran towards a dining room corner and huddled into a ball; something bad was going to happen, something terrible, he just knew it! Sick in both body and soul, Kyle's trembling hand struggled to reach a large knife on the tabletop and he grasped it. So scared that he just wanted to die, a cold sweat covered his body and he pointed the knife towards his chest.

Whimpering like a pathetic child, he was unprepared to see his grandfather calmly walk into the living room. The old man calmly turned around to see Kyle shaking behind the dining room's table and on seeing that, knew what happened. Unmoved on seeing his grandson in such a wretched state, he just looked at him for a moment before walking towards him. On reaching him, he pulled a knife from hands that grew limp and walked towards the kitchen.

It was then that explosions were heard in the distance and that the whole house began to shake. Yet even before the shaking subsided, Steven Martin emotionlessly left the knife on the counter and went towards the cupboards to get his pills. Brushing aside plaster that had fallen from the ceiling, Steven got a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took his medicine. On seeing his grandfather strong and sure, Kyle looked at him and tried to make him an anchor point, trying to take control of himself.

Then he began throwing up. The self assured kaijuologist gagged and felt burning, stinking bile force itself up his throat and out his mouth; when he stopped, he saw that he messed the floor and himself. With tears of pain and fear coming from his eyes, he felt like a little boy again and looked to his grandfather. With a weak voice, the trembling man/boy asked, "What happened grandpa?"

"Ghidorah happened Kyle."

At that name, the reporter's grandson began to rock and back forth in his huddle and moan. Despite this, however, he showed little pity instead just crossing his arms and scolding his grandson.

"Kyle, get it together," said the old man as he stirred up some coffee. "King Ghidorah may be warping your mind with the Fear, but the hold it has on you is only as strong as the hold you let it have. I've raised you since your parents died and with the things I've seen you do, and the things I've seen you face, I know you're stronger than some monster's parlor tricks."

"Th-the F-Fear…?" He saw his grandpa nod as he poured himself a mug. "You mean th-th-that I'm not really scared… He's just making me think I'm scared?"

Steven Martin sighed as he leaned against the kitchen doorway. "Kyle, if you, an ordinary human being, are brave enough to single-handedly face down Godzilla, who's over three hundred feet taller than you and a trillion times more powerful, time and again, why would you be scared of this?

"Ask yourself that," said the old man as he drank his coffee.

The light clicked inside his head as he processed those words. "Yeah… you're right. You're right!"

The logic of those words burning away madness like noonday sun burns away mist, Kyle Martin shot up in indignation and angrily tore away the vomit smeared outer shirt. With that off and wiping his mouth clean with a paper towel, he was in his tank top and turned to his grandfather. He asked, "How'd you know what to do?"

"Ghidorah's powers aren't absolute, and that especially goes for the one he used on you. Not only does he not always use it, the Fear can be countered either telepathically or psychologically, as I had you do."

Still uncertain, Kyle turned away. "Well why weren't you affected? Is it because you can't feel fear?"

"Of course." With that, the old man finished his coffee and put the mug in the sink. What frightened the young man was that he knew the old man was right.

"Whatever grandpa, we can't stay here. We've got to leave right now. I'm going back out to take a look."

He walked out and went towards the door, bracing himself for whatever he might encounter. When he was ready, he threw the door open and went outside; not surprisingly, what he saw wasn't encouraging. Though just the suburbs, hundreds of people were panicking everywhere, running for their lives in mass mobs and were throwing everything they could into their cars. Choking the narrow Brooklyn street, they were running in every direction like stampeding herds, screaming in panic and scrambling with terror. His heart going out to them, Kyle tried to call to them, reason with them, but as they deafly passed by him bumping past him, clutching stolen goods—looting had already begun—he knew it was useless.

Then all of a sudden, he heard an ungodly shriek cut the air, a shriek that made windows and glass in the whole area explode, glass that lacerated the poor people to red ribbons. With that, Kyle—and everyone else—was on the ground and trembling on his knees; on the sidewalk and with hands covering his ears, he took away his hands and saw them covered with blood. Looking up from where he was, he saw that people in a black shadow covered themselves with their hands and cried.

Knowing his duty, Kyle got up and looked to the enemy, defiantly screaming and shaking his fists at the demon. He looked up and saw King Ghidorah so high in the air that he was just a speck, even so he was casting Gravity Beams hither and yon, causing buildings everywhere to explode like bombs. With hot air thick with smoke and glass crunching beneath his shoes, he ran in panic towards his house. However, he was already on the lawn when he saw the garage door was opening and the car was rolling out; he froze and turned towards it.

Doing that he saw that his imperturbable grandfather was not only in the driver's seat but already had it running and was tuning the radio. Kyle let himself shake his head as he saw the prophet of doom vindicated once more. At least he knew that they'd last for a while with the trunk and backseat full of supplies. In any event, Kyle made it around to the passenger side seat and listened into the frightened reporter speak amidst screams and explosions.

"Its finally happened folks. New York City is under attack by King Ghidorah! America hoped it'd seen the last of the three-headed monster since Washington about five months ago but he's back for blood. NYC city had served as the new capital for months now since the old one was destroyed but with it's under attack and with it having served as a refugee camp for almost a year now, the casualties are going to be astronomical! Earliest reports show that Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, have all been attacked along with a large part of north east New Jersey. Here in New York, a tremendous mass of life is pouring around me. C-can you hear it? It's like Satan proclaiming hell on earth!"

At that, the terrified reporter froze in her narration. Of course, the explosions continued and so did the demon's harpy shrieks but the screams all stopped. Steven and Kyle Martin were especially worried on this. Looking at each other, they turned up the sound and listened.

"I'm not sure what to say folks… b-but it looks like King Ghidorah is… he's wheeling around for another attack and h-his screams and his shrieks shows that he's not done and, and … ahhhhh! Run for your lives!"

That was the last that Steven Martin and his grandson heard from the reporter. The people at the studio hurriedly said something of technical difficulties but the Kyle and grandfather knew what was at work. With well over nine million souls to torment, King Ghidorah would be using the Fear with a vengeance. With as many people as Tokyo but without kaiju experience since the 1950s, the city was going to be in trouble. City wide panic would hamper any rescue efforts and many people would drop dead from shock by the time it was done.

Knowing that, Kyle decided to take advantage of the rare unobstructed view that the Greenpoint neighborhood offered and climbed to the top of his car and from there, scrambled to the top of a garage. He looked northwards and saw across the East River towards Manhattan, he saw the building and he saw the evil one. He was indeed above the skies of New York's heart, casting a stray Gravity Beam here and Crimson Lightning there, raining death from above. With that Kyle jumped down from the garage and got into the car. He locked the door behind, put on his seat belt, and looked to his grandfather.

Steven Martin looked back at him and said, "You know what we have to do."

Kyle felt an insane smirk cross his face just as it did his grandfather's. "When it comes to courting death, there's nothing like chasing a kaiju!"

With that, the car went out of the driveway and raced towards Manhattan.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan itself, the scene was chaos. All across and around the fountains and trees and grassy hills of Central Park, ragged refugees from across the US, stopped and froze as King Ghidorah's shadow swept across them. Whatever it was they were doing, be it cooking on a hot plate or tuning their radios or looking over their tents and shacks, they stopped and froze as the shadow passed over them. For a moment they were still but soon enough, with sick feelings in their stomachs, they all looked upwards and saw the three-headed monster fly slowly and menacingly over them. Then, as if on cue, people all over got up and ran screaming over the Park's vast grounds, past Cleopatra's Needle, past the Alice in Wonderland Statue, past the Lake, and past the Zoo where the animals bellowed and crashed against the sides of the their enclosures.

On Broadway, people crashed their cars in panic and mounted New York City policemen attempting to restore order gave into the Fear soon enough leaving horse and rider to run for their lives. Driven to madness, some policemen were even shooting people left and right. In the forever gaudy, forever neon lit Times Square, the Jumbo Tron was broadcasting that it was suspected that King Ghidorah would soon enter New York airspace before it and the building on which it was mounted was vaporized by said monster; as for the Naked Cowboy, he and the other street performers just ran like Hell. Over at Broadway and Bowery, people were panicking and tripping over the carts and stalls of the Farmer's Market as they struggled to get to safety; didn't do them much good as Gravity Beams caused the entire area to explode into flame—and with the people in it. In the Upper East Side, a man with a kippah (yarmulke in Yiddish) walked out of a store marked "Kurtzburg's," grumbling about how could he run a proper business with all the screaming. He was talking trash about those damn son of this, damn sons of that; he began smoking a cigarette, smoking and swearing were old habits of his when he went on break. He kept at that before he look up and saw Samael flying up over the rim of the concrete canyons; on doing that he screamed "Got in Himmel!" and ran for his life.

It was like that all over Manhattan as King Ghidorah smashed building after building into dust and flying sideways between skyscrapers. With banshee screams bursting every ear drum and driving every mind mad, he continued sowing chaos in the core of America's greatest city. Building after building was smashed to fell across Manhattan and the rest of the City; the GE, the Metlife Building all of them. Rubble a hundred feet deep was strewn everywhere and whole neighborhoods were devoured in seconds by clouds of dust and debris. In the greatest city's greatest point, the Empire State Building, one woman was blissfully unaware as she came out of a newspaper HQ's records room. But as she closed the door behind her, a frantic man grabbed her from behind.

"What?" A stunned Connie Matsu turned around. "What's the matter Ronnie? What's the emergency?"

Her cameraman screamed, "It's King Ghidorah! He's here and we gotta run!"

An insane smile spreading across her face, she knew it was the feeling that drove every insane monster chasing reporter. "This is perfect! C'mon, we're going to get on the observation deck before it's too late."

"Are you crazy woman! The only thing we'll be too late for is to get out alive!"

Ignoring him, Connie twisted free of his grip and ran to the nearest newsroom; she knew it had big windows all around. Gleeful as a kid in a candy store, she ran to the nearest window, fighting her way through the surge of people running past their cubicles and brushing aside flying papers. As she ignored fading cries of "Audrey, you better have saved my schedule" and "Sure, now let's get out Mr. Caiman," Matsu threw open a window and began taking photos of King Ghidorah as he screeched and flew and delivered death in the skies above the mighty towers of the island city. Whipping out a handheld voice recorder, she began saying what she saw, alternating between that and photos she was almost unprepared when she saw King Ghidorah rush the building.

Stunning even her, she saw the supersonic monster rocket towards her, filling the entire skyline with its hideous visage, before breaking off in a vertical 90 degree turn. Even so, the force and rush of it exploded the window, the slipstream sending razor blade shards flying and cutting the people that failed to get somewhere safe. Almost unprepared but not quite, Connie just barely managed to duck for cover behind a desk; on getting back up she looked around and saw the people still there. Putting her gizmo's aside for the moment, she helped a cut person back to his feet and on seeing the person just wanted to run for his life, she told him the fastest way down.

On thinking of the fastest way up, she moved with the remaining crowd when she felt the entire building shake. Plaster raining for the ceiling and everything falling from its place, the floor swayed for a moment and kept moving slightly back and forth. Once again people were knocked to their feet and the ceiling and the support columns of the room were broken. Seeing her on her knees, Ronnie rushed through the dust towards her and helped her up amidst the rushing crowd. He asked "Connie, are you all right?"

"Better than all right! Look at these." She went and showed him the screen on her digital camera. She went from picture to picture saying, "Look at these pics, they're beautiful!"

"Haven't you been listening? The President has declared a Federal Disaster Area and the Mayor has ordered total evacuation. NYC is now military space, this building especially since King Ghidorah is pulling a Kong on top of the Empire State Building!"

Connie Matsu smiled. "Simple then, we just pull a Driscoll and get to the observation deck. Even better though. If it's just us, we're going to get an exclusive! Get your camera ready Ronnie, I can't be doing your job for you now can I?"

With a scowl on his face, he grabbed her in headlock and began to forcibly drag her away. "Damn it woman, you're not going to file the story if you're dead."

Fighting against his grip, the newswoman began kicking and screaming. "What? Do you have any idea what you're doing Ronnie! We heard that Godzilla and King Ghidorah were going to fight in the Arctic, but Ghidorah's coming means the fight's here. It's going to be the ultimate battle and we have ringside seats!"

"It's the scoop of the century!" she screamed as she was dragged into an elevator.

In Greenland, the chaos was very much the same. Mere hours had passed but in that time, King Ghidorah had destroyed MOGUERA beyond repair and had reduced the best laid trap of mice and men to a smear on the ice. It was this place that Godzilla saw when he finally arrived. In his heart of hearts, he had feared that this would happen, that the humans would not be able to stand against his enemy and now the fear was vindicated. He looked around and saw the last smoldering smoke from various installations, he saw the ravaged upturned earth, and the slush of mud and ice and rock. They were dead, the humans that would have been his comrades in arms were all dead.

The King of the Monster's black head scanned back and forth, looking for any sign of life, looking for his innocent. He saw nothing but twisted chunks of metal, smelled nothing but the sour stink in burning flesh and heard nothing but the howling wind. On seeing this, Godzilla began walking forward, his giant's step causing the earth to quake, and roared in his anger. If Ghidorah had killed his Miki, he would burn down heaven and earth to kill the beast!

"No Godzilla, he hasn't killed me. Not yet anyways."

Puzzled, the King of the Monsters looked down to where he heard that and saw that she was still alive. Looking back and forth with a gargantuan head, he failed to spot anything until he finally caught sight of a tiny speck on the snow. On catching sight of his innocent, he focused his golden eyes and concentrated his thoughts on her. Why was she here, all alone in this ruined place? Why had she not left it with all the other humans?

Directly in front of him, Miki craned her neck as far back as it could and looked upwards at a giant that seemed to tower up into the heavens. In between legs larger than a hundred Greek pillars and feet the size of houses, she spoke her peace. "I'm here because somebody had to stay and tell you what happened. Who better than me? The plan had been to lure King Ghidorah here so that nothing could get in the way of the final battle but found out what we were trying to do and left. He's gone to New York City, a city as vast as Tokyo and with as many people. He knows that this is going to be last battle between you and he and he's determined that if he will die, that he will make as many that can die with him.

"That or he will bring on this world what he did to yours."

Confused, Godzilla's his golden eyes narrowed as he looked on his innocent. Wanting to understand, he cleared his mind to hear whatever thoughts Miki sent to him.

Feeling her insides turn to ice and knowing that it wasn't from the polar winds, Miki Segeusa looked to her friend. "The Elias and I have spoken. They're the avatars of Mothra and Battra; they've taught me, you know this, but there is one other thing. They and their family have been fighting King Ghidorah for more than 65,000,000 years, ever since their mother first Dragon Queen watched over you."

White vapor coming as he snorted, Godzilla was shifted his body, making the frozen sea water in the nooks and crannied of skin crack and the ground beneath him tremble. He did not believe her.

"You must. I've seen your thoughts and memories and theirs. The Great Tyrannosaur saw what was coming and made you to fight King Ghidorah; he told Titania, she told her daughters, and they told me. You hate King Ghidorah for killing the dinosaurs for destroying your world. He plans to destroy Earth again, but this time forever. The day after he destroyed your world, he destroyed his own using his World Extinction Attack; killing all living things and turned a world into a wasteland, it's his deadliest attack. Now he plans to use on Earth but this time it will be even more deadly because he's more dangerous than ever. If he uses it this time then it means the end of all life on Earth forever, no return, no second chance."

Turning his head from side to side, Godzilla's face contorted into a grimace of rage and he roared. To destroy the world he'd been born to guard… Murderous bastard! To die a thousand deaths would not be enough to make King Ghidorah pay!

With a weak and pleading voice, Miki craned her neck up and said, "He's waiting for you. He wants you to come. Godzilla, no matter what it takes you can't let King Ghidorah win, not again, not ever again! These aren't the Monster Wars anymore, they're the Final Wars because this is the end."

The city had piqued his interest for some time as; there had been others but only one other had elicited as much interest in his black heart. The other city had also been on an island and it had the added misfortune to be covered in Godzilla's stink, thus attracting the demon further. In fact, it was only by sheer luck of the draw that it the demon had chosen one city instead of the other.

That other city had been Tokyo, Japan, and its people would never knew how close they came to complete and utter annihilation.

Meanwhile, back in the very heart of America's greatest city, it was a place of chaos. All the surrounding boroughs had been decimated and their peoples, those that yet lived, scattered to the winds. In Manhattan, the survivors were desperately trying to escape as best they could; their best wasn't much though since many bridges and tunnels had been destroyed. Though Manhattan had been spared much physical damage all the rest of the city was a "sea of fire" where "thousands lie dead or dying." Proof was seen in how Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens and northeast New Jersey were raging firestorms from which the National Guard was desperately trying to save lives.

It was a strange, frightening time among many strange, frightening times with was at hand. Above the island of Manhattan and the entire New York area, a jet black cloud was forming so thick and completely dark that it left all below it black as midnight at high noon. Neither satellites nor spy planes were able to look through and the few pilots that tried to come in from beneath the cloud were instantly driven mad by the demon by the demon and died. From the darkness above in between bolts of black lightning and crashes of thunder, and there fell what looked like blood, as if it were like red rain. As if it were a slaughter house the entire island stank of decay for all its towers was stained crimson and the waters that surrounded dyed scarlet. With the sky blackened as if it were a sackcloth and for there to fall fire mingled with blood, it did little to improve morale.

With eyes glowing red with hate and watching this like Satan looking down on the Pit of the Damned, King Ghidorah waited. Ignoring the red rain that pitter pattered on him and stained him and ignoring the bolts of lightning that spilt the sky asunder, the devil's hammer looked on his final target. He looked back and forth with sinuous hydra necks from his perch on the Empire State Building and saw that Manhattan was spared his wrath. The island of glass and stone and iron would be the battlefield and so he had left it untouched it so that it would be destroyed in the final cataclysmic collision. As for the humans, they were trying to flee their anthill as fast as they could, men, women, children, every last one of them. The King of Terror saw them do this and he let them escape with their lives; he had bigger prize in mind, a prize that would come to him soon enough.

In the days to follow, there would be sign and portents in the sky that the last day was at hand. It would rain fire and ice and there would be tumult. The seas would boil and deserts would freeze and there would be madness. It would be such for the Four Horsemen would proclaim Armageddon and the final destruction of the human race and of the world that birthed it. They would proclaim that the dragon of the apocalypse, the dragon cast from heaven had come.

Ignoring the red rain that drenched him and the black lightning that resounded around him, the beast closed six eyes and waited. Here it would be decided. Here it would happen. Here would be the final war between Godzilla and King Ghidorah for this was the end.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Eight

Back in Greenland, the final battle was at hand and the weak and mortal men that sought to profit from it stood at a distance from the final battlefield to watch. A trio of men that hoped to influence the outcome stood not to far off in a mechanical monster that was called MOGUERA. In the robotic behemoth they sat and waited, though perhaps not patiently.

"Boss, how much longer are we going to have to wait?" asked Glen as he zipped up his jacket.

Santos passionlessly looked out of the machine's windows to see the vast snowy field and army camp from over a hundred meters up. Speaking in monotone, he said, "Until King Ghidorah arrives."

With breath freezing, the shivering Fuji sighed as he drummed his fingers on the control panel in front of him and looked to the humming house sized generators strewn in the field before them. "And when will that be?"

His leader saw energy beams shot back and forth in the distance, heralding the demon's arrival. "Any minute now actually," said the commander.

Seemingly immune to the cold, Santos checked the holographic transmitters and saw that MOGUERA was still disguised as a large hill. He then looked to his satellite linked monitors and was not only confirmed of the quarry flying in but also saw that the second monster was less than an hour away. "You know the plan, he comes in and eats that energy. It leaves him doped up and Godzilla comes to destroy him. If it looks like Ghidorah's going to win or if he actually does win, we pick up where Godzilla left off."

Dressed in military BDU and wearing his M-helmet like his comrades, the blonde man scrunched his eyebrows. "So we're only going to get into this fight to play clean up…"

Santos nodded. "You heard it in the briefing. This is going to be Godzilla's fight and we're not going to get in his way."

That was seen in the people down below as they scrambled about their duties, running this way and that. The few still there were doing the final duties for they were the last, all others had already gone to hide in previously made bunkers. In one of those cold, crowded bunkers and clad in a parka, Miki walked towards the radar screen but could barely see it. She took off her sunglasses—without protective eyewear, Artic snow will reflect enough sun into your eyes to leave you blind—and saw clearly enough to look at the radar screen to know that Mothra and Battra were already baiting King Ghidorah to make the final approach. (She inwardly sighed; the injured Quetzalcoatl had so wanted to help fly in the mission.) That was when she heard it.

What she heard was a muffled explosion that made the bunker shake and the hiss of steam as energy beams vaporized the snow outside. Miki fought the urge to go out and look for herself—she'd been told that she had to stay alive and conscious for Godzilla to home in on—and maneuvered around the mob of people going everywhere at once in an effort to make it to the main screen. Once she made it there, she just stood there transfixed. It was if everything froze and the world melted away as she saw the horrific images play out before her on the plasma screen.

King Ghidorah was already there, his feet in the snow and his body low to the ground as he fired strafing shots at his two foes. Snow blasted away by their slip streams, the emaciated Lepidopteron twins dodged the Gravity Beams and rocketed upwards. Increasing his speed to the maximum, Battra made a hairpin aerial turn and went into a death dive towards the Prince of Skyllans. Screeching like a dive bomber as he shot down, the Black Mothra was just a blur as his keratin wings slashed the side of the evil one. Howling more in indignation than pain King Ghidorah turned all three necks and furiously fired a barrage of fireballs at the insect… which is what the insect wanted.

With that, Mothra wheeled down from her high place and flew in downward corkscrew circles as she gave off a shimmering dust. Too angry to notice this, King Ghidorah only noticed when a fireball he shot off ricocheted straight back and hit him. Unprepared to absorb the energy or shield himself, the evil one was knocked back. Enraged, he charged and fired three Gravity Beams yet that too went back and singed him. The demon's sinuous, snake like neck placed his middle head directly in front of his chest wound; it saw the wound was already closing but what had happened? With his anger cooling, he let himself see the sparkles that shimmered around him; anyone else might have called it beautiful but to King Ghidorah they galled him.

It was Mothra's reflective pollen and he was trapped! Unlike the first time when the vacuum of space kept the pollen from doing its work, this time the conditions were just right. That was when Battra flew directly opposite to her circle, in a holding pattern, and cast from his body a scarlet mist, as if it were droplets of blood that hung in the air. The red mist began to have its effects as the wounds that King Ghidorah had inflicted on himself not only stopped closing but began to open further. (Normally, though the anthrax like toxin would leave a foe screaming for death but this was all you could hope for considering the foe.)

Set in hideous gorgon faces, the demon's six red eyes began to glow with hatred for he saw that there was only one thing for him to do. With that, his whole body began to glow as beaten gold and his wings shone as rubies and both charged with energy. Too late to react, Mothra and Battra saw the three-headed monster loose a torrent of Gravity Beams and Crimson Lightning with all his awful strength. The beam attacks, of course, were reflected back on their master and caused wound and welt to appear all over him but as each was reflected back, it kept taxing the duo's strength to do so.

It was a game of chicken, Ghidorah was willing to endure his self inflicted torment but were his foes willing to endure it on themselves? For a moment that was unknown as the King of Terror reflected Gravity Beam after Gravity Beam back on himself and slashing his body apart with his own destructive power. Yes the evil one screeched in torment so horribly that there were those driven mad by it, but Mothra's mystic pollen began to waver and wave erratically. Battra saw this and flew from his side of the circle next to her; in hovering next to her and flapping his wings as he did so, he gave her his strength so that she might hold on that much longer but it was not enough.

With one final unearthly howl that made ice shatter and snow fall, with final reflected streams of gravity and of red lightning to tear open his belly and leave burning blood to poison the land below, the shimmering pollen was broken. Then with diabolic masks on his faces, King Ghidorah moved his three skulls towards one another and fired a combined Triple Beam towards Mothra and Battra that blasted them from the sky. Their bodies sooty and singed and with wings in flames, the siblings fell from the sky and crashed to the earth to be buried under snow and ice.

He looked to them and saw them on their backs and buried in the snow, the area around them melting and their singed bodies smoking. As for King Ghidorah, he was hardly better. To "overload" the pair, he had left himself terribly injured; his belly and chest were slashed and burned, his wings were raw and torn open, the skin was blasted from his neck, etc. Staggering about, and with smoke emanating from his body he had a bad mind—three actually—to go and be rid of himself of the two moths once and for all, but he was tired. The fact that Battra's blood mist still clung to his skin and caustically burned his skin and poisoned his wounds hardly helped. He was so tired and hurt because he could endure any attack save his own.

That was when he looked forwards and saw it, as if in a daze, and looked on it. What he saw were dozens of plasma generators all scattered around the ice field but a few miles away. Grotesque faces softening ever so slightly, King Ghidorah began to hobble towards them, hoping to replenish his strength with all that sweet energy, all that sweet delicious energy. Yes he would go there, and drink his fill, then his would be healed and use his power to smite his enemies. Stupid humans leaving that there for him, stupid, stupid humans…

In the MOGUERA, Tomas Santos saw this and allowed himself a grim smile. He looked to his control panel and connected to HQ. "Santos to base, Santos to base, so far so good, King Ghidorah has broken his power and is going to absorb the energy set out for him. Over."

"HQ to MOGUERA, we read you loud and clear. What is Mothra and Battra's status, over?"

"They were hurt badly but it looks they'll make it, over and out."

At that, MOGUERA's controllers and the people on the ground collectively held their breaths as they saw the air shimmer beneath the demon and knew he was warping gravity beneath him. With his wings moving him across the land for his broken legs were too weak to do so, King Ghidorah painfully moved towards the generators. If he had had any sense, he would have suspected a trap and not have gone anywhere near the generators but Hayashida himself had designed them and even now they were doing their work, dulling his senses and weakening his mind. All that he could think of was of so much sweet energy.

That was made evident when he reached a plasma generator and hovered above it. But although the pseudo nuclear reactor was the size of a two story building, it was dwarfed by the now over six hundred fifty feet tall three-headed monster; that was made clear when King Ghidorah "perched" on it. The demon hovered upon it, his dangling talons barely touching it, and began to siphon off the power, blue streaks of lightning lashing from top of the machine and into the air towards his legs. It was a quick affair as the plasma generator was forced to work several times past its capacity and, after it began to glow, suffered a slight explosion and left smoke coming from out its burnt and molten sides.

King Ghidorah looked at the wreck beneath him and did the equivalent of a mental shrug because he just looked away and turned to another plasma generator. After that, he turned to another and then another, repeating the process the whole while. Back at the bunker, the technicians were slightly unnerved at this. In reality, they all knew that they were just making the wretch even more powerful. At the center of the room, watching it all from the main screen, Commander Raschen knew this most of all. Although he knew that the demon grew more drunk and insensate by the moment, he also saw that with each erg of energy that the three-headed monster absorbed, another of his wounds closed.

He looked to his side and turned to Miki. "Miss Segeusa, how much longer until Godzilla arrives?"

After tearing her gaze from the burned and injured forms of Mothra and Battra, she said, "He'll be here in a matter of minutes, sir. I 'told' him when the plan would be executed and when he should come." The psychic closed her eyes and saw what the King of the Monsters saw in dark, salty water. She saw particles of ice and bubbles of air flow past her and felt the rush of cold water. She then felt a titanic, scaled body breach the surface to inhale a great lungful of air before crashing below the near frozen, frothy sea. "He's in sight of land. He surfaced before going back down below."

A few minutes later, Colonel McDonough came up from behind and to report to his Commander. "Sir, we've-"

"Spotted Godzilla? And let me guess, the observers that spotted him think he might have been coming up for air?"

"Yeah but how'd you…" That's when he turned to see the smirking Miki Segeusa and smiled. "Yes, sir. That's what our scouts reported.

"Anything else soldier?"

"Sir, no sir."

"Very well, return to your post."

McDonough nodded and went back. With that, the Commander looked to the psychic at his side. "You're good."

Segeusa bit her lip as she thought what Moll, Lora, and Belvera might feel at this. "Thank you sir. I had very good teachers." With that, she and the Commander returned their attention to the screen before them.

At the screen, they saw just what it that was happening and it was King Ghidorah. He was going from generator to generator stealing every last drop of plasma and leaving the house sized machines nothing but slag. Yet as he did so, the unholy beast began to teeter and sway; though frightened, Miki went and scanned his cancerous mind. She encountered a swirling jumble that showed nothing but sloth and drunkenness and said, "If Sanno left Orochi drunk with liquor than so will we."

Drunkenly staggering back and forth, King Ghidorah could barely stand up with all the "spiked" plasma coursing through him. His wings drooped and his long twisting necks lolled even as the spines on the clubs of his twin dragging tails gouged furrows in the ice. He could feel nothing and he could think of nothing save taking more of the sweet, sweet plasma into himself. In the very back of his three dark, ugly minds, a strange little thought began to form and rose to that very last dreg of rational thought.

That thought was, in fact, a memory of the time he went and did battle with the Vortakk. They had fancied themselves conquerors and like all planetary conquerors had sought to make an army of monsters. To that end, they culled from the ranks of the skyllans a formidable army that was bent to their will. Yet as was such with those who grew drunk with power, it was not enough. An army of skyllans was not enough, for it to be complete the Prince of Skyllans was needed and so they laid a trap for King Ghidorah. This was what the three-headed monster remembered, that and that the Vortakk had used plasma generators tuned to his energy signature to trap him…

At that sudden realization, the demon screeched in black fury and fired his beams towards the heavens in his anger. He realized that the humans were trying to keep him there for some purpose and that that purpose would inevitably end in his destruction. With six eyes glowing red with hate and three deformed, gorgon faces, twisting into a mask of horror, the King of Terror turned around to the humans and in the command center the terrified humans knew that the proverbial jig was up. As for Ghidorah, he could only ask one thing… they would make a dupe… out of him!

Rage burning away his stupor, the devil's hammer loosed his Crimson Lightning against the plasma generators, thus causing an explosion to rock the whole area. He leapt into the sky and he spun around in the sky from a hanging position, firing his Gravity Beams in ever widening circles, destroying everything they touched. It was what some called a Death Storm and its amplified gravity Beams left all they touched was made into so many smashed atoms. When he stopped spinning and his feet touched the ground, three hideous skulls looked this way and that to survey the destruction and saw it everywhere in the form of broken metal, smoking rubble, and charred bodies.

With that he felt a shot from behind and it hurt him. Intolerable, who would strike the Prince of Skyllans now! As of in response to the demon's thought, MOGUERA came rolling in on its tank tread feet firing its eye mounted Plasma Laser Guns and its chest mounted Plasma Laser Cannon. If someone watching this had stopped to ask, he might have considered the irony in this, being fed with plasma one moment but being attacked with it another. However, neither monster nor machine much cared about irony at that moment and sought little more than pure battle at that moment.

At some 120 meters tall and armed to the teeth, silver and blue MOGUERA was ready to fight and so was its crew. Seasoned veterans of several a Monster Wars campaign and willing to pay any price for victory, Santos, Glen, and Fuji were ready to face down their demonic foe… or more accurately face up. At 200 meters tall, the golden three-headed monster towered over his hated metal foe and sought to crush it like an egg. As he stretched out his wings and twitched his tails from side to side, he knew that if the humans sought to meet him with guile and trickery, then so be it, but let it be known that that would be their greatest mistake.

And the battle was on…

At Infant Island, the Elias were in grim meditation. As much as they had wanted to join their other halves after what happened to them, they had been unable to do so for there was work to be done. King Ghidorah's necrotic presence was poisoning the very Earth he walked on and if something wasn't done right away then Earth would be forfeit, even if he were defeated. That was seen in how it had begun snowing on the tropical island… snowing! The people there had been preparing for a long hard road ever since the handmaidens of their gods had learned that the evil one was coming but it was becoming too much to bear! Some of the islanders even wished for the old days when the land was poisoned by radiation, at least then they knew what to expect.

For now, however, three sisters were deep underneath the soil and stone of the isle in the broken remains of the old temple. Once, it had been center for all worship across Lemuria and its spires glistened in the sun and shone by the moon. Thick with the scent of incense and with the thunder of drums, temple dancers moved their bodies and gave their voices in worship and praise to their goddess and her children. They praised them for guarding them, for giving them the sweet, fair land of their birth, for blessing them with crops and rain and most of all for teaching them ways of love and mercy.

Such it was for time immemorial but the day came that the sun was blotted out by golden wings. As though he were a black moon to eclipse the light, he came and wrought destruction untold on all the lands, destruction so great that civilization had to begin anew. By the time it was done, a mighty continent was reduced to one island and the holy temple that had taken the Lemurians a hundred years to build was made a shattered ruin. Now, the daughters of the priestess of the goddess were there in the lightless dust of the ruin.

There, amidst broken stones and fallen pillars, they three stood atop the stone alter where a cross was inlaid inside a triangle. It represented a trinity of virtues and each diminutive sister stood at one point, Belvera at Courage, Moll at Wisdom and Lora at Love. As the trio always did, they levitated the shield of their father between them, touching it with the three divided blades of their mother's sword; absorbed in their magicks, they shone strange colors and illuminated the darkened place they were in. It was then that all of a sudden that they felt a shot of agony go through them that made the scream and fall.

They all fell, clutching their swords and with the Shield cast aside but they met the effort to rise up. Though nauseous, Belvera was the first to get up and on seeing her sisters still on the ground, she immediately rushed to their side. She saw that Moll was moaning as she stirred about; seeing that she would survive, she went and checked Lora's pulse. Though Lora herself was exhausted, her pulse and breath were still strong. The middle sister forced herself to her wobbly feet and rushed to the youngest sister when she saw that she had yet to get up.

"Lora! Lora, are you all right, can you hear me?"

Though pained, the baby of them began to sit up and winced at the yell. "I'm all right. Just don't yell."

Blue dress rustling as she shrank back, Moll bit her lip and said, "Sorry."

Belvera helped her little sister back up and the little sister said, "Its ok Moll but… what happened? We were trying to reconnect broken ley lines and get Earth's mana flowing again when…"

"When the final truth was revealed to you my daughters."

On hearing a voice unheard in 12,000 years, three sisters turned as one and saw their mother, Titania the Dragon Queen, and their father, Oberon the Lord Elias. Unable to believe her eyes, Lora walked up to them and hesitated, as if afraid to touch them. "Mama, daddy."

She stopped and did not move just as her sisters did not move as they saw these visions as well for visions they were with what was seen. The diminutive pair was seen to shimmer and to be transparent and made of pale light that shone; they were ghosts that stood on the alter before the three sisters. Holding hands as they walked atop the cross of the trinity, it was plain that they would have been a magnificent sight in life with flowing robes and chains of gold and jeweled crowns on their heads. Alas, they were not alive and were only capable of inspiring fear… except in the hearts of those whom they loved because true love is greater than fear.

Overcome by feeling and with tears in her eyes, Belvera rushed to hold her father tight but he held up his hand and shook his head. With a sad look on his face, he said, "I am sorry my dear sweet child but that I can not do. As you see, neither your mother nor I stand as flesh and our time here is naught but a short one."

Moll nervously strode to her Titania and said, "Mother, my sisters and I have missed you so for all these millennia. Is it time for we three to join you in the land beyond?"

"No my little one," said the Dragon Queen as her ghostly hand caressed her daughter's cheek. "The time has not yet come for our family to be reunited forever."

Then her face grew dark as she contemplated her feelings. "Not yet anyways."

Frightened, Lora asked, "What do you mean 'not our time yet?' What's the matter?"

"The demon, that's the matter." The three sisters' ghostly mother turned away from them so that they would not see her cry. "The humans have fought valiantly against the enemy and the plan they brought against him now was especially clever in its simplicity. Bait the evil one with that which gives him his simulacrum of life and leave him drunk and unknowing then call he whose birth I implored to come. With that, the champion of the Great Tyrannosaur would come and avenge his sire's children against he who killed so many of them."

Oberon then shook his head as he placed a hand on his eldest daughter's shoulder. "King Ghidorah is a cunning and wily thing for he has seen through the trap laid for him and has escaped from those who would destroy him. He saw that men and monsters laid that trap for him and reasoned that it was to leave him there for a final battle against the Great Tyrannosaur's champion.

"The three-headed monster has decided that there will be a final battle but he will choose where it will be, nobody else. Not only that, but the source of all our woes has also decided that it will be about more than just Godzilla and he. On this island, there has been hunger and disease and now a cold time has come; what has happened here will happen a trillion fold across the Earth should evil win. The final strike shall not just be against Godzilla but against Gaea herself."

At that, Belvera, Lora, and Moll collectively gasped. Able to telepathically feel their parents fears, the three of them had known that something was the matter but it was only until the last word slipped from their father's mouth that they realized just what it was they were up against. For a time every last one of them went completely pale, even their lips were white, and they began to tremble. Always the mediator and most balanced of Oberon and Titania's daughters, it was Moll that finally spoke up.

"You don't mean to saw that King Ghidorah will use the power of World Extinction?"

"Yes." With a sour look on his face, her ghostly father looked away. "…Oddly enough, it was the humans that gave him power enough to do it now."

" …But, but he can't! Not even he would do such a thing!"

Titania frowned. "Oh wouldn't he? He killed those that gave him birth didn't he? He murdered his own children, didn't he? He put out the light of all the stars his world could see, didn't he? He killed me, didn't he!"

Her husband laid a comforting shoulder on her hand and gently chided her. "Titania dearest," he said wagging his finger at her, "calm down. He killed the both of us when he destroyed Lemuria; seeing how you were just another face in the crowd to him, it wasn't personal."

Angry tears on her face, she sullenly said, "Oberon, I doubt that its 'not being personal' meant anything to the victims of Unit 731 as they were tortured to death in the name of science."

"Perhaps dearest but we mustn't let such angry feelings get in the way of finding solutions to the problem. Rest assured that while we ourselves won't be able to affect that solution there will be those that can."

Lora looked to the two who were king and queen of their race, or the shades thereof, and whispered, "Surely not us. We have done all we can but we are not the ones that the Creator has chosen to save this world He made."

Now more composed, Titania the Dragon Queen answered. "No child, it is not you, you are not the chosen one. Remember to whom the mission is entrusted, it is entrusted unto the beauty who sees into the hearts of men and the beast that will smite God's enemy. I foresaw this future in the last days of Lemuria. The vision was entrusted to me by the Supreme Being of how the Age of Men would end and the Age of Monsters begin. Moll, Lora, Belvera, that the champion of Draco Deus would rise up was a vision which I entrusted to the three of you when your father and I died, and for millennia you kept it until the dawn of the Monster Wars. In the future I saw, men and monsters fought alongside one another as they did in the time of the Ancients and they triumphed and the world was saved."

"Or so your mother said." Oberon ran his hand across his eldest's cheek before kissing the younger ones on their foreheads. "That was the prophecy but as we all know, prophecy can be a tricky thing. The prophecy that my Dragon Queen received from the Dragon God is as such but while a prophecy might say what it means, it might not mean what it says. The world can be saved my daughters three as the prophecy says, if you make it so.

"Even now the devil's hammer flies to an isle of man made mountains and of towers forged of glass and steel. It is there that the demon will bring forth the final destruction of this planet unless he is stopped once and for all. You must quickly tell the chosen one what lies ahead of her and that unless she passes the final test… all will be lost."

Confused, Moll asked "Final test? What final test? Mother, father what's happening, what's going on?"

Titania took Oberon's hand and stepped back, fading as they did so. As one they both said, "That you three must divine for yourselves or it shall not be divined at all. Know that the end is at hand but that it can be the end for this world of the devil that would destroy it. Farewell."

With that, Moll, Lora, and Belvera were alone once more in the temple sanctuary.

With a soul made of love, one clad in blue and silver said, "We have to go tell the Chosen One. She's counting on us, we can't fail her." Lora unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

With a mind full of wisdom, one clad in red and gold said, "We know what to do and how to go about doing it. We mustn't give in now when we're so close." Moll unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

With a heart forged with courage, one clad in jet black said, "We haven't given up yet nor will we ever. The three of are going to fight to the end, no matter what!" Belvera unsheathed her sword and set it before her.

Looking at three crossed swords, the eldest said, "Are you with me? Will we fight to the end?"

Two sisters that proclaimed the light both said, "We fight to the end."

One sister that looked from the dark said, "I can't hear you!"

With both younger and middle smiling, they yelled, "We fight to the end!"

At that moment and doing far less dramatic things, Kyle was in Brooklyn, New York, in the small house he and his grandfather were staying in. Funny, while UNGCC's scientific division wasn't strictly military, it was still paramilitary and that meant the adage of an army man traveling was still true. The thought came to him because though he and his grandfather had been at the new house for a month, they'd yet to finish unpacking with all they were doing. Proof positive was in how he was going over the last boxes left in the living room. True, what little furniture that could be scraped together was in place and the computer was hooked in but the wooden floor was still bare and so were the walls. And there was still a pile of boxes there that were filled with junk!

Thinking to remedy that, he'd decided to spend his day off unpacking boxes; he'd been at it the whole morning. However, there was one box marked valuables that had given him more trouble than it was seemingly worth so there he sat on the wooden floor, trying to open it with a pair of shears. When it at last burst open, Kyle looked inside and felt a sentimental smile as he pulled out his old GI Joe and Transformer toys. Of all the things grandpa could have salvaged when the old house was destroyed back in Chicago, thought the kaijologist. Even so, after gazing across the empty house to see nobody was looking, he had the soldier and the robot in his hands and held them right next to one another.

Doing impressions, he said, "'C'mon Optimus, its time to fight Cobra and the Decipticons!' 'Right behind you Duke!' " After allowing himself a slight chuckle, Kyle gently placed the old toys back into the box and put the box on the kitchen table nearby. Feeling tad thirsty, he went to the refrigerator to pull out a carton of orange juice and went for a clean glass from barely stocked cupboards. As he did so he came across his grandfather's medication and, after pouring himself a glass, he checked his watch. Grandpa was due for his pills but he decided to hold off until the old man woke up.

Drinking from his cup, Kyle leaned back against the counter and wondered if this had been brought on by how his grandfather had gone with Miki to Infant Island a year ago. The old man should have known better than to risk his health like that, he wasn't a young man to be running around. Since then, his condition had steadily been growing worse, especially since what happened to Chicago. At the moment, his grandfather was sleeping in the bedroom and getting much needed rest. With that thought and with a last sip, Kyle rinsed his cup, set it in the sink and went back to unpacking.

However, he had just come across a box marked books and began moving it towards the empty bookshelf when he heard at what sounded like a car crash outside. Worried, Kyle rushed to the window and saw that it was indeed a car crash; for reasons he did not know, he was filled with a tremendous overwhelming fear as he went to and opened the front door to look at Greenpoint Brooklyn. What greeted him was a mad panic that gripped the entire line of row houses from one end of the block to another, a mad panic that took the form of people running out of their houses driving away like madmen in their cars and other things.

Not knowing why, he ran inside and slammed the door shut behind him, hands quivering as he locked it. Trembling uncontrollably he ran towards a dining room corner and huddled into a ball; something bad was going to happen, something terrible, he just knew it! Sick in both body and soul, Kyle's trembling hand struggled to reach a large knife on the tabletop and he grasped it. So scared that he just wanted to die, a cold sweat covered his body and he pointed the knife towards his chest.

Whimpering like a pathetic child, he was unprepared to see his grandfather calmly walk into the living room. The old man calmly turned around to see Kyle shaking behind the dining room's table and on seeing that, knew what happened. Unmoved on seeing his grandson in such a wretched state, he just looked at him for a moment before walking towards him. On reaching him, he pulled a knife from hands that grew limp and walked towards the kitchen.

It was then that explosions were heard in the distance and that the whole house began to shake. Yet even before the shaking subsided, Steven Martin emotionlessly left the knife on the counter and went towards the cupboards to get his pills. Brushing aside plaster that had fallen from the ceiling, Steven got a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took his medicine. On seeing his grandfather strong and sure, Kyle looked at him and tried to make him an anchor point, trying to take control of himself.

Then he began throwing up. The self assured kaijuologist gagged and felt burning, stinking bile force itself up his throat and out his mouth; when he stopped, he saw that he messed the floor and himself. With tears of pain and fear coming from his eyes, he felt like a little boy again and looked to his grandfather. With a weak voice, the trembling man/boy asked, "What happened grandpa?"

"Ghidorah happened Kyle."

At that name, the reporter's grandson began to rock and back forth in his huddle and moan. Despite this, however, he showed little pity instead just crossing his arms and scolding his grandson.

"Kyle, get it together," said the old man as he stirred up some coffee. "King Ghidorah may be warping your mind with the Fear, but the hold it has on you is only as strong as the hold you let it have. I've raised you since your parents died and with the things I've seen you do, and the things I've seen you face, I know you're stronger than some monster's parlor tricks."

"Th-the F-Fear…?" He saw his grandpa nod as he poured himself a mug. "You mean th-th-that I'm not really scared… He's just making me think I'm scared?"

Steven Martin sighed as he leaned against the kitchen doorway. "Kyle, if you, an ordinary human being, are brave enough to single-handedly face down Godzilla, who's over three hundred feet taller than you and a trillion times more powerful, time and again, why would you be scared of this?

"Ask yourself that," said the old man as he drank his coffee.

The light clicked inside his head as he processed those words. "Yeah… you're right. You're right!"

The logic of those words burning away madness like noonday sun burns away mist, Kyle Martin shot up in indignation and angrily tore away the vomit smeared outer shirt. With that off and wiping his mouth clean with a paper towel, he was in his tank top and turned to his grandfather. He asked, "How'd you know what to do?"

"Ghidorah's powers aren't absolute, and that especially goes for the one he used on you. Not only does he not always use it, the Fear can be countered either telepathically or psychologically, as I had you do."

Still uncertain, Kyle turned away. "Well why weren't you affected? Is it because you can't feel fear?"

"Of course." With that, the old man finished his coffee and put the mug in the sink. What frightened the young man was that he knew the old man was right.

"Whatever grandpa, we can't stay here. We've got to leave right now. I'm going back out to take a look."

He walked out and went towards the door, bracing himself for whatever he might encounter. When he was ready, he threw the door open and went outside; not surprisingly, what he saw wasn't encouraging. Though just the suburbs, hundreds of people were panicking everywhere, running for their lives in mass mobs and were throwing everything they could into their cars. Choking the narrow Brooklyn street, they were running in every direction like stampeding herds, screaming in panic and scrambling with terror. His heart going out to them, Kyle tried to call to them, reason with them, but as they deafly passed by him bumping past him, clutching stolen goods—looting had already begun—he knew it was useless.

Then all of a sudden, he heard an ungodly shriek cut the air, a shriek that made windows and glass in the whole area explode, glass that lacerated the poor people to red ribbons. With that, Kyle—and everyone else—was on the ground and trembling on his knees; on the sidewalk and with hands covering his ears, he took away his hands and saw them covered with blood. Looking up from where he was, he saw that people in a black shadow covered themselves with their hands and cried.

Knowing his duty, Kyle got up and looked to the enemy, defiantly screaming and shaking his fists at the demon. He looked up and saw King Ghidorah so high in the air that he was just a speck, even so he was casting Gravity Beams hither and yon, causing buildings everywhere to explode like bombs. With hot air thick with smoke and glass crunching beneath his shoes, he ran in panic towards his house. However, he was already on the lawn when he saw the garage door was opening and the car was rolling out; he froze and turned towards it.

Doing that he saw that his imperturbable grandfather was not only in the driver's seat but already had it running and was tuning the radio. Kyle let himself shake his head as he saw the prophet of doom vindicated once more. At least he knew that they'd last for a while with the trunk and backseat full of supplies. In any event, Kyle made it around to the passenger side seat and listened into the frightened reporter speak amidst screams and explosions.

"Its finally happened folks. New York City is under attack by King Ghidorah! America hoped it'd seen the last of the three-headed monster since Washington about five months ago but he's back for blood. NYC city had served as the new capital for months now since the old one was destroyed but with it's under attack and with it having served as a refugee camp for almost a year now, the casualties are going to be astronomical! Earliest reports show that Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, have all been attacked along with a large part of north east New Jersey. Here in New York, a tremendous mass of life is pouring around me. C-can you hear it? It's like Satan proclaiming hell on earth!"

At that, the terrified reporter froze in her narration. Of course, the explosions continued and so did the demon's harpy shrieks but the screams all stopped. Steven and Kyle Martin were especially worried on this. Looking at each other, they turned up the sound and listened.

"I'm not sure what to say folks… b-but it looks like King Ghidorah is… he's wheeling around for another attack and h-his screams and his shrieks shows that he's not done and, and … ahhhhh! Run for your lives!"

That was the last that Steven Martin and his grandson heard from the reporter. The people at the studio hurriedly said something of technical difficulties but the Kyle and grandfather knew what was at work. With well over nine million souls to torment, King Ghidorah would be using the Fear with a vengeance. With as many people as Tokyo but without kaiju experience since the 1950s, the city was going to be in trouble. City wide panic would hamper any rescue efforts and many people would drop dead from shock by the time it was done.

Knowing that, Kyle decided to take advantage of the rare unobstructed view that the Greenpoint neighborhood offered and climbed to the top of his car and from there, scrambled to the top of a garage. He looked northwards and saw across the East River towards Manhattan, he saw the building and he saw the evil one. He was indeed above the skies of New York's heart, casting a stray Gravity Beam here and Crimson Lightning there, raining death from above. With that Kyle jumped down from the garage and got into the car. He locked the door behind, put on his seat belt, and looked to his grandfather.

Steven Martin looked back at him and said, "You know what we have to do."

Kyle felt an insane smirk cross his face just as it did his grandfather's. "When it comes to courting death, there's nothing like chasing a kaiju!"

With that, the car went out of the driveway and raced towards Manhattan.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan itself, the scene was chaos. All across and around the fountains and trees and grassy hills of Central Park, ragged refugees from across the US, stopped and froze as King Ghidorah's shadow swept across them. Whatever it was they were doing, be it cooking on a hot plate or tuning their radios or looking over their tents and shacks, they stopped and froze as the shadow passed over them. For a moment they were still but soon enough, with sick feelings in their stomachs, they all looked upwards and saw the three-headed monster fly slowly and menacingly over them. Then, as if on cue, people all over got up and ran screaming over the Park's vast grounds, past Cleopatra's Needle, past the Alice in Wonderland Statue, past the Lake, and past the Zoo where the animals bellowed and crashed against the sides of the their enclosures.

On Broadway, people crashed their cars in panic and mounted New York City policemen attempting to restore order gave into the Fear soon enough leaving horse and rider to run for their lives. Driven to madness, some policemen were even shooting people left and right. In the forever gaudy, forever neon lit Times Square, the Jumbo Tron was broadcasting that it was suspected that King Ghidorah would soon enter New York airspace before it and the building on which it was mounted was vaporized by said monster; as for the Naked Cowboy, he and the other street performers just ran like Hell. Over at Broadway and Bowery, people were panicking and tripping over the carts and stalls of the Farmer's Market as they struggled to get to safety; didn't do them much good as Gravity Beams caused the entire area to explode into flame—and with the people in it. In the Upper East Side, a man with a kippah (yarmulke in Yiddish) walked out of a store marked "Kurtzburg's," grumbling about how could he run a proper business with all the screaming. He was talking trash about those damn son of this, damn sons of that; he began smoking a cigarette, smoking and swearing were old habits of his when he went on break. He kept at that before he look up and saw Samael flying up over the rim of the concrete canyons; on doing that he screamed "Got in Himmel!" and ran for his life.

It was like that all over Manhattan as King Ghidorah smashed building after building into dust and flying sideways between skyscrapers. With banshee screams bursting every ear drum and driving every mind mad, he continued sowing chaos in the core of America's greatest city. Building after building was smashed to fell across Manhattan and the rest of the City; the GE, the Metlife Building all of them. Rubble a hundred feet deep was strewn everywhere and whole neighborhoods were devoured in seconds by clouds of dust and debris. In the greatest city's greatest point, the Empire State Building, one woman was blissfully unaware as she came out of a newspaper HQ's records room. But as she closed the door behind her, a frantic man grabbed her from behind.

"What?" A stunned Connie Matsu turned around. "What's the matter Ronnie? What's the emergency?"

Her cameraman screamed, "It's King Ghidorah! He's here and we gotta run!"

An insane smile spreading across her face, she knew it was the feeling that drove every insane monster chasing reporter. "This is perfect! C'mon, we're going to get on the observation deck before it's too late."

"Are you crazy woman! The only thing we'll be too late for is to get out alive!"

Ignoring him, Connie twisted free of his grip and ran to the nearest newsroom; she knew it had big windows all around. Gleeful as a kid in a candy store, she ran to the nearest window, fighting her way through the surge of people running past their cubicles and brushing aside flying papers. As she ignored fading cries of "Audrey, you better have saved my schedule" and "Sure, now let's get out Mr. Caiman," Matsu threw open a window and began taking photos of King Ghidorah as he screeched and flew and delivered death in the skies above the mighty towers of the island city. Whipping out a handheld voice recorder, she began saying what she saw, alternating between that and photos she was almost unprepared when she saw King Ghidorah rush the building.

Stunning even her, she saw the supersonic monster rocket towards her, filling the entire skyline with its hideous visage, before breaking off in a vertical 90 degree turn. Even so, the force and rush of it exploded the window, the slipstream sending razor blade shards flying and cutting the people that failed to get somewhere safe. Almost unprepared but not quite, Connie just barely managed to duck for cover behind a desk; on getting back up she looked around and saw the people still there. Putting her gizmo's aside for the moment, she helped a cut person back to his feet and on seeing the person just wanted to run for his life, she told him the fastest way down.

On thinking of the fastest way up, she moved with the remaining crowd when she felt the entire building shake. Plaster raining for the ceiling and everything falling from its place, the floor swayed for a moment and kept moving slightly back and forth. Once again people were knocked to their feet and the ceiling and the support columns of the room were broken. Seeing her on her knees, Ronnie rushed through the dust towards her and helped her up amidst the rushing crowd. He asked "Connie, are you all right?"

"Better than all right! Look at these." She went and showed him the screen on her digital camera. She went from picture to picture saying, "Look at these pics, they're beautiful!"

"Haven't you been listening? The President has declared a Federal Disaster Area and the Mayor has ordered total evacuation. NYC is now military space, this building especially since King Ghidorah is pulling a Kong on top of the Empire State Building!"

Connie Matsu smiled. "Simple then, we just pull a Driscoll and get to the observation deck. Even better though. If it's just us, we're going to get an exclusive! Get your camera ready Ronnie, I can't be doing your job for you now can I?"

With a scowl on his face, he grabbed her in headlock and began to forcibly drag her away. "Damn it woman, you're not going to file the story if you're dead."

Fighting against his grip, the newswoman began kicking and screaming. "What? Do you have any idea what you're doing Ronnie! We heard that Godzilla and King Ghidorah were going to fight in the Arctic, but Ghidorah's coming means the fight's here. It's going to be the ultimate battle and we have ringside seats!"

"It's the scoop of the century!" she screamed as she was dragged into an elevator.

In Greenland, the chaos was very much the same. Mere hours had passed but in that time, King Ghidorah had destroyed MOGUERA beyond repair and had reduced the best laid trap of mice and men to a smear on the ice. It was this place that Godzilla saw when he finally arrived. In his heart of hearts, he had feared that this would happen, that the humans would not be able to stand against his enemy and now the fear was vindicated. He looked around and saw the last smoldering smoke from various installations, he saw the ravaged upturned earth, and the slush of mud and ice and rock. They were dead, the humans that would have been his comrades in arms were all dead.

The King of the Monster's black head scanned back and forth, looking for any sign of life, looking for his innocent. He saw nothing but twisted chunks of metal, smelled nothing but the sour stink in burning flesh and heard nothing but the howling wind. On seeing this, Godzilla began walking forward, his giant's step causing the earth to quake, and roared in his anger. If Ghidorah had killed his Miki, he would burn down heaven and earth to kill the beast!

"No Godzilla, he hasn't killed me. Not yet anyways."

Puzzled, the King of the Monsters looked down to where he heard that and saw that she was still alive. Looking back and forth with a gargantuan head, he failed to spot anything until he finally caught sight of a tiny speck on the snow. On catching sight of his innocent, he focused his golden eyes and concentrated his thoughts on her. Why was she here, all alone in this ruined place? Why had she not left it with all the other humans?

Directly in front of him, Miki craned her neck as far back as it could and looked upwards at a giant that seemed to tower up into the heavens. In between legs larger than a hundred Greek pillars and feet the size of houses, she spoke her peace. "I'm here because somebody had to stay and tell you what happened. Who better than me? The plan had been to lure King Ghidorah here so that nothing could get in the way of the final battle but found out what we were trying to do and left. He's gone to New York City, a city as vast as Tokyo and with as many people. He knows that this is going to be last battle between you and he and he's determined that if he will die, that he will make as many that can die with him.

"That or he will bring on this world what he did to yours."

Confused, Godzilla's his golden eyes narrowed as he looked on his innocent. Wanting to understand, he cleared his mind to hear whatever thoughts Miki sent to him.

Feeling her insides turn to ice and knowing that it wasn't from the polar winds, Miki Segeusa looked to her friend. "The Elias and I have spoken. They're the avatars of Mothra and Battra; they've taught me, you know this, but there is one other thing. They and their family have been fighting King Ghidorah for more than 65,000,000 years, ever since their mother first Dragon Queen watched over you."

White vapor coming as he snorted, Godzilla was shifted his body, making the frozen sea water in the nooks and crannied of skin crack and the ground beneath him tremble. He did not believe her.

"You must. I've seen your thoughts and memories and theirs. The Great Tyrannosaur saw what was coming and made you to fight King Ghidorah; he told Titania, she told her daughters, and they told me. You hate King Ghidorah for killing the dinosaurs for destroying your world. He plans to destroy Earth again, but this time forever. The day after he destroyed your world, he destroyed his own using his World Extinction Attack; killing all living things and turned a world into a wasteland, it's his deadliest attack. Now he plans to use on Earth but this time it will be even more deadly because he's more dangerous than ever. If he uses it this time then it means the end of all life on Earth forever, no return, no second chance."

Turning his head from side to side, Godzilla's face contorted into a grimace of rage and he roared. To destroy the world he'd been born to guard… Murderous bastard! To die a thousand deaths would not be enough to make King Ghidorah pay!

With a weak and pleading voice, Miki craned her neck up and said, "He's waiting for you. He wants you to come. Godzilla, no matter what it takes you can't let King Ghidorah win, not again, not ever again! These aren't the Monster Wars anymore, they're the Final Wars because this is the end."

The city had piqued his interest for some time as; there had been others but only one other had elicited as much interest in his black heart. The other city had also been on an island and it had the added misfortune to be covered in Godzilla's stink, thus attracting the demon further. In fact, it was only by sheer luck of the draw that it the demon had chosen one city instead of the other.

That other city had been Tokyo, Japan, and its people would never knew how close they came to complete and utter annihilation.

Meanwhile, back in the very heart of America's greatest city, it was a place of chaos. All the surrounding boroughs had been decimated and their peoples, those that yet lived, scattered to the winds. In Manhattan, the survivors were desperately trying to escape as best they could; their best wasn't much though since many bridges and tunnels had been destroyed. Though Manhattan had been spared much physical damage all the rest of the city was a "sea of fire" where "thousands lie dead or dying." Proof was seen in how Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Queens and northeast New Jersey were raging firestorms from which the National Guard was desperately trying to save lives.

It was a strange, frightening time among many strange, frightening times with was at hand. Above the island of Manhattan and the entire New York area, a jet black cloud was forming so thick and completely dark that it left all below it black as midnight at high noon. Neither satellites nor spy planes were able to look through and the few pilots that tried to come in from beneath the cloud were instantly driven mad by the demon by the demon and died. From the darkness above in between bolts of black lightning and crashes of thunder, and there fell what looked like blood, as if it were like red rain. As if it were a slaughter house the entire island stank of decay for all its towers was stained crimson and the waters that surrounded dyed scarlet. With the sky blackened as if it were a sackcloth and for there to fall fire mingled with blood, it did little to improve morale.

With eyes glowing red with hate and watching this like Satan looking down on the Pit of the Damned, King Ghidorah waited. Ignoring the red rain that pitter pattered on him and stained him and ignoring the bolts of lightning that spilt the sky asunder, the devil's hammer looked on his final target. He looked back and forth with sinuous hydra necks from his perch on the Empire State Building and saw that Manhattan was spared his wrath. The island of glass and stone and iron would be the battlefield and so he had left it untouched it so that it would be destroyed in the final cataclysmic collision. As for the humans, they were trying to flee their anthill as fast as they could, men, women, children, every last one of them. The King of Terror saw them do this and he let them escape with their lives; he had bigger prize in mind, a prize that would come to him soon enough.

In the days to follow, there would be sign and portents in the sky that the last day was at hand. It would rain fire and ice and there would be tumult. The seas would boil and deserts would freeze and there would be madness. It would be such for the Four Horsemen would proclaim Armageddon and the final destruction of the human race and of the world that birthed it. They would proclaim that the dragon of the apocalypse, the dragon cast from heaven had come.

Ignoring the red rain that drenched him and the black lightning that resounded around him, the beast closed six eyes and waited. Here it would be decided. Here it would happen. Here would be the final war between Godzilla and King Ghidorah for this was the end.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Nine

"Mr. Miyamoto, where's auntie?"

On a step ladder, the old man looked down from the shelf he was stacking. He stopped what he was doing and asked, "What was that, Kenichi?"

The college student asked again. "I said if you knew where auntie is."

"Of course. She is in the reading room, writing a letter to the Martins."

The boy nodded and said, "Thank you, sir. I think you might want to come with me."

Though confused, Shigaru merely nodded and got off the step ladder, following his mistress's nephew away from the kitchen. He followed the boy towards a large doorway in the hall and opened it. There they saw Emiko Yamani writing a set of letters on a large table amidst her father's old dinosaur models. Kenichi said, "Auntie, I'm sorry to barge in but there's something on TV you've got to see!"

The elderly woman looked around and asked, "What's going on?"

"Yukari just called in and told me that there was something on the news, it's about King Ghidorah and Gojira in New York City. She said it can be seen on United World Television News."

She sighed. "Them. Ironic, Gojira's being there was why I sent for you to come back here from America. All right, let us see what your sister's friends have to say." At that she got up, reached for the television set on a nearby table, and turned it on. What she saw stunned her and those with her.

"—ust tuning in, I'm Connie Matsu for United World Television News reporting on the situation here at the remains of Jersey City, New Jersey." She herself was forced to speak loudly as thunder and ungodly gale force winds kept drowning her out but the person translating her words into Japanese kept an even tone. "Mind you, there is nothing wrong with your television sets, because in addition to black lightning, it seems that red rain is falling from the sky. Behind me the Hudson River is stained scarlet and behind it Manhattan where King Ghidorah seems to be waiting." In the dark beneath a sky whose impossibly thick storm clouds left the area as black as night, the woman drenched in sickly crimson stopped and turned around, pointing to the island in the distance.

"Its dark now but if you look closely, you can see black lightning bolts illuminate King Ghidorah's outline as he's 'perched' atop the Empire State Building. He looks to have one foot on the Observation Deck and the other atop the Tower while his body is wrapped around the antenna. The last monster to make a stand there was King Kong himself and that was almost seventy years ago; now the monster atop it dwarfs the building little more than half its height.

"As you probably know, King Ghidorah came to New York City, as one witness said, 'like a million tons of gold bricks fell from Mars to Earth.' After destroying the five boroughs and the surrounding New York metropolitan area, it settled here as if waiting for something. Many people are certain that he's waiting for Godzilla to come so that the two of them can fight a final, decisive battle. Not only that, but a military buildup in the Arctic seemed to confirm that G-Force's plan was to let them fight in hopes that King Ghidorah be destroyed once and for all. Though the US Government and the United Nations' Security Council have both denied any such actions, the majority of the American and global public are certain that this is the case."

The camera shifted back to Miss Matsu from King Ghidorah and she looked back with a grim look on her face. After a silence, in which all there was to here was the sick pitter patter of red rain on a blood drenched poncho, Connie Matsu spoke up. "If Godzilla does battle King Ghidorah here of all places, we've every reason to expect that a battle to the death between the two monsters will burn Manhattan and the remains of New York to the ground. In Boston, where the US capital has been relocated yet again, protestors have actually been marching in front of White House III for NYC's sacrifice on grounds that its better to lose one city than the world."

"The world indeed because, frighteningly enough, analysts predict that unless King Ghidorah is defeated within a nearby timeframe, that it won't matter if he's ultimately destroyed or driven off planet. That's because by then the global infrastructure will be so weakened that all world governments will collapse. It has already been seen in Third World nations and is feared such a thing could happen in developed nations such as the United States. In fact, some people even fear that not only is there risk of government collapse and the fall of civilization but the end of all life on Earth within six days."

At that Connie Matsu stopped and let those words sink into her stunned audience; looking on her darkened, blood rain wet face, they saw she was serious. "That is correct, for those that failed to hear me or feel they misunderstood, we potentially face the end of all life on Earth within six days. Ever since King Ghidorah emerged from his meteor prison a year ago, mass hysteria has gripped whole countries, leaving some people to say that it's the end of the world. For those of you who did not hear Secretary General Santos' grim announcement yesterday, it literally is the end of the world.

"Something we've noticed for months now, is that whatever place King Ghidorah destroys is later unable to support life, some have gone on to name this the 'Taint;' we've even seen that living things sicken and die agonizing deaths when in his presence for a long enough time. Seemingly unconnected, scientists have increasingly theorized that the idea of Ley Lines, streamers of energy crisscrossing the Earth in lines supplying energy or 'mana' as if they were blood vessels, may in fact be true. For decades now, psychics and occultists have claimed that it was true, even those in Tokyo's prestigious Psionics Research Center have taken it under consideration. However, if it is, then the two combined is potentially disastrous.

"As Secretary General has told us, it is theorized that King Ghidorah plans to use his 'Taint' in an effort to corrupt Earth's mana here in New York. With Manhattan as the focal point, the Taint and the corrupted mana will flow through the Ley Lines across the globe and thus killing all living things and turning Earth into a charnel house.

"However, for all the black lightning and blood rain here, this isn't limited to the New York metropolitan area." The image on the television screen shifted from that of Connie Matsu, to scenes of destruction that illustrated her narration. "In the middle east, long dormant fault lines have re awoken, causing earthquakes that have killed thousands. In the Philippines, Mt. Pinatubo has began spewing ash and fire, destroying all surrounding areas and turning them into cities of death. All across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, hurricanes three times more powerful than any on record have been pounding coastlines incessantly and swamping whole cities. Ever since King Ghidorah arrived on Earth, we have experience strange weather patterns and geological upheavals but now it's many times worse.

"With all that's happening, if what is to come is the final showdown between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, most people say so be it. When the Monster Wars first began, people looked on Godzilla and Ghidorah as being equally terrible and that both would have to be destroyed before they both destroyed the world. However, as the three headed monster has razed the Earth, the human race found itself united with Godzilla against a common foe and people have increasingly looked to what they once thought their greatest enemy as their greatest hero, this reporter included."

Allowing herself a smile and one single tear, she looked straight at the camera and at her viewers. "It's true. Near the start of the Monster Wars, I was there decrying Godzilla as being just as bad as King Ghidorah and that he should be destroyed alongside the space demon. But I was wrong, I was so wrong and now I see that the King of the Monsters is the one thing left that can save us. In this reporter's opinion, if we are to survive, then we have no choice but to ally ourselves with Godzilla if only this one time. If we are true to him he will be our savior so wherever you are, believe in Godzilla so that he may believe in us.

"This is Connie Matsu signing off."

Connie Matsu was a good reporter, she would have to be uncover her news report, but even she could not know just what it was that was going on beneath her feet, underneath Manhattan. Deep below street level, below subways and sewers systems, beneath the UN Building, was an enormous subterranean base, the next generation in strategic command centers. Secretly built as a place where the captains of mankind's destiny could make their last stand, it had been built with the notion of world disaster in mind and was thus the last place left where the best laid plans of mice and men could be hatched. Yes, so it was that in a darkened, silent, cavernous war room reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove, the captains of mankind's destiny were gathered around a large round table with a mammoth screen directly behind where their admiral sat.

Shrouded in shadows, Secretary General Santos was turned away from them, looking at the screen and concentrating on Matsu's report. After it ended and the image returned to generic images of King Ghidorah on the Empire State Building, of where in the Atlantic Godzilla was, and of standard charts and graphs, he sighed and whispered to himself, "Six days to destroy the earth… the same number that it took to create it."

On saying that, he turned around in his chair to face his advisors. With a thoughtful look on his face he looked to each and every one of them.

"All right team, here we have the situation. First things first, New York is in imminent danger and we're running out of options. Mr. Mayor, this city is your responsibility; while I hope it doesn't come to it, the city will face terrible casualties should worse come to worst. I don't want any deaths on your conscience; after all, every life is precious and a leader's first priority is the safety of his people. Besides, NYC is a military theater and we can't afford anyone getting in our fighting men and women's way, for their safety as well as for military efficiency of course.

"Has the city been completely evacuated?"

The Mayor of New York cleared his throat before speaking. "Well Mr. Secretary General, in the time following King Ghidorah's arrival in the city, evacuating the civilian population has been my number one concern. Although his destroying various bridges and tunnels made it incredibly difficult, we've evacuated most everyone in Manhattan and the surrounding areas."

Santos raised an eyebrow. "Most everyone? Most but not all?"

The Mayor nervously adjusted his tie before responding to that. "No, sir. Though emptied, there are still a few scattered civilians in Manhattan and the New York area. Its one of the ten largest cities in the world; you can't expect that evacuating a city this huge is going to be easy. It's not just a question of where are all those people going to go, there are still holdouts in the five boroughs too stubborn to move out, you oughtta see the folks hiding in the subway tunnels like they was bomb shelters. Not to mention how the big companies don't want to leave and want their city back. I mean, New York holds the purse strings of the western world; the destruction of New York means who knows what for the economy."

The Secretary General raised an eyebrow and thought, The economy?

"Besides," continued the Mayor, "there's still New Jersey; my authority ends at city limits but King Ghidorah's desire to destroy doesn't."

Santos briefly nodded. "I see. I want you to know that I sympathize with your plight Mr. Mayor and that I pray you manage to get as many of your people to safety as you can. However, while I do hope you succeed and I will help you in what ways I can, the well being of this city is your responsibility, the well being of this planet is mine which brings us to the next point."

Smiling, he calmly looked at them all for a moment and said, "All right men this is it. I don't mean to sound angry or disturbed but tell me…" With a wild look in his eyes, Santos slammed his fist to the table with each exclamation. "_WHAT!_" Slam. "_THE!_" Slam. "_**HELL!**_" Slam. "_**ARE WE GOING TO DO BEFORE WE ALL DIE!**_"

At that the dozens of UN and national representatives; Santos the younger, Director Goodhue, Professor Hayashida, Aso and his underlings from Raschen to Ahmed, Generals Spielburg and Rhodes, Princess Salno, the Mu Emperor, the Elias; all winced. Under a harsh circle of light that illuminated them but left the rest of the room in darkness, they timidly shrank and shuffled the paperwork before them. Normally friendly and personable, the Secretary General was on the verge of cursing in every one of the fifteen languages he spoke and shouted, "_**WELL!**_"

With an angry look on his face, Miguel Santos got up from his seat, began pacing around the round table, and glowering at the people assembled. He knew full well what was at stake, he still remembered how he felt that day when he looked out of his brownstone on Sutton Place and looked east to see the demon on the ape's building, and he wasn't going to back down. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are best and brightest the human race has to offer." He gestured with her hand towards the Elias and Salno's Watchika Prime Minister. "Human race and beyond in fact…" He kept walking, his hands behind his back as he looked at everyone. "Some of us on the team aren't even the same species but we're all one big happy family right now because quite simply none of wants to get killed.

"However, as we all know, the Elias have told us and our best scientists have confirmed this that King Ghidorah is going to use a 'World Extinction Attack' to kill us all in one fell swoop. The monster's right above us so gentlemen that means that if he uses his World Extinction Attack, we'll be the first to go. Any ideas on how to keep that from happening? Any at all?"

On seeing their master calmed ever so slightly, there was some movement again; it was with then that Director Goodhue slowly raised his hand. By then the king of the world had made his way back to his seat and stood there before the table and acknowledged the speaker. "Yes Director, do you have anything to add to this conversation?"

The old man cleared his throat and found his voice. "Well, sir, as you know I am the Director of Operations for the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center and I have consulted with my staff off on this… problem. The plan was to have Godzilla and King Ghidorah fight it out between themselves and then for your son, I mean Lieutenant Santos to move in and finish off King Ghidorah with MOGUERA. However, the plan failed. …MOGUERA was terribly damaged and now the monster is here."

The Secretary General shook his head and sighed. "MOGUERA was made to be the best and brightest robot we had and we lose it when we need it the most…" He looked at his son, Tomas. "They say it was damaged, how badly?"

The young man shook his head. "Very badly, sir. I was there when King Ghidorah attacked and we were almost completely destroyed, perhaps beyond repair. Land MOGUERA and Star Falcon might be repaired individually if we focus on one instead of the other but the main robot itself… there's no way its going to be ready in time for the coming battle."

Secretary General Santos rubbed the bridge of his nose as he heard this. "I see. Hayashida, you're our resident genius on all things kaiju. Do we have anything powerful enough to destroy King Ghidorah before he destroys us, whatever the price may be?"

"No sir. We all have to face facts and accept that there is absolutely nothing on Earth capable of destroying or even injuring the three-headed monster. As the Mu Emperor reminded us, we have seen the effects of a nuclear explosion on King Ghidorah when he exploded Super Apophis over eight months ago. As suspected, it only made him stronger. As for the Dimension Tide, he 'reversed' the energy to grow stronger still. Ghidorah's creators made him to be the ultimate weapon and he is quite simply just too powerful."

On hearing that, Commander Aso raised his hand and spoke when the elder Santos acknowledged him. "Sir, we may have a way out, though it won't be a pleasant one. As we all know, the plan we first had took into account the fact that no human weapon could destroy King Ghidorah and instead was to 'team up' with Godzilla in order to win. We thought to hold the battle in an isolated area to avoid civilian casualties and any property damage. However, King Ghidorah caught on to our little idea and came here. He apparently wants a final battle and wants it here, the city's destruction being a final insult if the claim that he is an intelligent creature is to be believed."

He pointed to the screen and as he did so the chief computer programmer, the 'Troll,' generated the image on the mammoth several story tall screen. "This footage shows that while my forces have done all they could to get him off the Empire State Building and return the battlefield to an isolated area, it has not been enough. We've had an aerial assault by Captains Cooper and Shoesdack on the Building; psychic assault by the Elias, Miss Segeusa, and every other psychic the UN could get; and a certain more unorthodox attempt. Troll, run footage."

At that, the men and women saw a pasty arm rise above a computer screen and heard a whiney voice say, "Right boss."

With that, the main screen showed security camera footage from the Empire State Building Tower looking down on the Observation Deck where a wild eyed man in a ragged military uniform waved his fist up at King Ghidorah off screen. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he picked up a kitchen sink he had carried with him to the top, raised it at the demon, and threw it down. Turning away from the screen, Aso said, "Yes, one of our men in uniform has even tried to use the kitchen sink. Literally. If you're wondering what's become of him, he's being treated for mental illness."

Commander Aso looked to Santos. "There is a choice to be made. With the stakes involved, its not going to be a pleasant one either way, but the choice must be made and you sir are going to have to be the one to make it."

At that everyone in the room looked to the man hearing him whisper "Clavos de Cristo…" The Secretary General gripped his seat's hand rests, recalling how he'd thought authorizing Dimension Tide was the most difficult choice he'd ever have to make. He was wrong, and so looking like a man that had gone to Hell and back, he stood up. "The final battle of Ragnarok… If one wins, Earth lives, if the other, Earth dies, simple as that. Well gentlemen, enough is enough and like it or not there's only one thing left to do."

Standing to his full height, he took a deep breath and looked around to all those there. "It knows what we tried to do, that we want Godzilla to fight him and it's decided that if that's going to happen its going to happen here. Well this 'final showdown' isn't going to be about what Ghidorah wants, its going to be about what _**I**_ want. They say Godzilla is the only thing left that can save us then I say damn the cost! We will stand and fight! They say King Ghidorah's the devil's hammer then I say, by the nails of Christ we're going to send the Devil back to Hell!"

Before Santos could continue, the Mayor of New York shot up. "What are you talking about! Maybe you think you're all high and mighty with your fancy UN job, but I'm not going to sit idly by and let my city be destroyed!"

At that his companion tried to get him back in his seat and to quiet him. "Shut up Aiken! I don't care if you are Mr. Perfect Know-it-all Secretary of State, New York is my city and President Emmerich is with me 100% on this!"

The room growing dead silent, the Mayor stopped and realized the mistake he made. He fearfully turned towards the elder Santos and saw an angry man grow even angrier. "Mr. Mayor, Earth's survival is at stake and that means six billion lives; only Godzilla can save us so I have no choice. You can rest assured that I will have troops stationed around Manhattan to do everything possible to contain the damage. You can tell the President that this isn't a choice I make lightly and that I plan on taking full responsibility for whatever outcome.

"However, if this meeting is so upsetting, I would not wish to see it bother you. You may go outside and wait for the Secretary of State to tell you everything."

"Bur sir-"

"**You may go outside!**"

At that, the dejected man sullenly got up from his chair and walked through the double doors. On seeing that, every one there made a mental note not to mention Emmerich's name in Santos' presence again.

After that outburst, the meeting continued as would be expected and several of the highest ranking people stayed up in all night session. Lower ranking individuals, however, had the option of leaving after a time and the first of them was Miss Miki Segeusa; she had left the command center as soon as she could and had come out secret exit at the Brooklyn Bridge to look for Kyle—it was one a several exits from the city beneath a city. (A cache of Cold War valuables hidden there in case of nuclear attack! If the people only what was really happening!) That's not to say that she "flaked," far from it, she was one of the most responsible and dedicated people there. No, what happened was that while she was dedicated to the cause, she was also a part of something else, someone else. That somebody was of course, Kyle Martin.

For a time they'd both worked in New York doing clerical busy work, Kyle as punishment and Miki while she recovered. However, when the time for the final battle came, they'd been separated with Miki on the battlefield and Kyle on the home front. It of course had been difficult for Kyle to be separated from her, separation always is, but it had been especially so because he wouldn't have been able to protect her; it was ultimately the reverse with Miki fearing for Kyle.

She had been in the arctic on a frozen battlefield when she learned that New York City had been destroyed and perhaps Kyle with it. On learning that Kyle might be dead, she was frightened, even more frightened than when King Ghidorah entered her mind. Ever after learning of the city's fate, she had tried to find Kyle; nobody knew where he was and she couldn't reach him on phone or anything else. She then tried to search for him telepathically in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, but there had been too much interference from the millions of people screaming and dying.

That was a traumatizing thing for a psychic. Even if she might not to enter the minds of others, she always has the power to feel the presence of others as a sort of a background noise; thus to feel the screams and pain and sufferings of a thousand others was a torture. It had been ever since that night when she first met Godzilla… the night she tried to take her own life. True, Miki had left Greenland and come to Santos's emergency meeting in NYC thinking all the while about Kyle, about whether or not he and his grandfather were alive. Yes, as much as she wanted to just leave and pick through every pile of rubble looking for the man she loved, she knew that she couldn't forsake her duty, they were counting on her.

Yet even so, Miki left as soon as duty allowed to search for Kyle. One would have thought that this was an impossible task; even assuming that he was still in New York, he could be any where among the now more than nine million people in or 369 square miles of NYC's city proper alone. A seemingly impossible task but there was one place where she knew she might find him, if only he was still there. It was with that thought that she was becoming increasingly angry with the guard on the Brooklyn side of the famous Bridge who refused to let her pass.

"I'm sorry ma'am but we can't let anyone pass without clearance, no exceptions. With King Ghidorah up there, it's for your own safety."

Miki got off her motorcycle and unfastened her helmet. "But Private…Morgan," she said after a quick surface scan. "Please understand, someone I love is in Manhattan and I have to find him. It won't take long and I won't ever tell."

The army private said, "We've all lost someone in the Monster Wars miss. I'm sorry for your boyfriend, maybe he got out in time so you should check in the area hospitals and the like."

Knowing that if anything, Kyle would head towards danger, Miki knew that this wasn't what was going to happen. Though she hated playing on her reputation, Miki stood to her full though diminutive height and in her most impressive voice. "Private, do you have any idea who I am. I am Miki Segeusa, chief psychic and top agent of G-Force! If anything you should be following my orders immediately and without question!"

The soldier on guard duty rolled his eyes and shook his head. Clearly losing his patience, he said, "Listen lady, even if you really were the real Miki Segeusa, I'd still need clearance. Yo Jake, you met Segeusa once didn't you? Come over here."

Another soldier in regular uniform and with M-60 walked over saying, "Yeah, I met her. What's up Rick?"

"Does this woman here look like Miki Segeusa?"

The man growled. "Not another one. Rick, this is the fifth Segeusa tonight. I've got work to do so call me if something really important happens." With that, he stomped off.

"You hear that lady, people trying to get in have been saying they're Miki Segeusa all day. Now just run along, I don't want any problems."

Miki though to herself, fifth one tonight? Angry that the they could only get into the UN Base through Brooklyn with the recent damage, angry that she had left her clearance badge back there, she did something she never liked to do. "You will let me pass."

All of a sudden, the guard seemed to go limp and felt dizzy. "…What?"

Miki waved her hand in front of the soldier and repeated her words. "You will let me pass."

Staring off into space, the slack jawed man mumbled, "…I will let you pass…"

Thanking Kami-Sama for her powers, Miki smiled and waved her hand before the soldier once again. "After this, you will return to guard duty and you will tell no one of what you did…"

"…I will return to guard duty and tell no one of what I did…"

"…because you will have no memory of what just happened."

"…because I will have no memory of what just happened…"

On seeing that her "Jedi Mind Trick" had worked, Miki smiled and kissed the soldier. "Thanks Private Morgan! I'll make sure to send you a card for your birthday!"

She then refastened her helmet, walked back to her commandeered motorcycle, and was back to crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Feeling the hum of the Honda machine drive her along, Miki was startled, though not surprised, by the utter lack of any human life as she drove. After looking ahead to see if there was anything to get in the way, Miki drove to the side and looked at the East River. It wasn't blood red anymore but with ash falling from roiling storm clouds above her, it was like black snow was falling. Increasingly frightened for Kyle's safety, she sped past the enormous stone towers that rose up and held the suspension bridge with so many, mighty cables. As she kept going, she saw the colossal buildings of lower Manhattan seemingly grow taller the closer she got, the Financial Center on her left… and the Empire State Building with a cancerous growth on it to her distant right.

Soon enough she crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge into the midst of the island, driving her motorcycle through deathly silent and empty streets. Scanning left and right, dodging piles of rubble that seemed to be everywhere, looking through her helmet as she sped past the abandoned buildings, she saw just how America's greatest city and quite possible the mightiest city on Earth had been brought to its knees in one day and one night. Once the city-that-never-slept, it now slept the sleep of the dead because not a sound, not a movement, not a whisper was heard. For what seemed like hours, she kept driving past the corporate high rises and apartments and stores and restaurants unhampered despite the infamous but now non-existent traffic jams, instead feeling cold, fetid air choke her nostrils.

She looked up and saw a red light; instinctively, she stopped and let her feet touch the ground. On stopping to think about the silliness of stopping for a red light in these circumstances, she let herself have a tired laugh. She looked behind her motorcycle and saw that she'd left a trail through the ash fall, like tracks through a snowfall, though the ash falling now would soon cover it up. Looking back and looking up, she saw the light turn green and went on her way.

She was going for hours, checking her map at red lights, checking street signs, groping about blindly through the ruined, dark, unlit city. New York… even with its checkerboard streets, it was so much easier in Tokyo where streets and boulevards were logically organized by numbers, wards, and sections. On getting off the bridge, she went past the civic center, Chinatown, and City Hall, taking a right to get on Broadway. Driving along it for some time, she passed Little Italy and Greenwich Village, and thought of how Macy's yearly parade came down here. This year, alas, there had been no parade. No parades, no yellow Medallion Taxis, no hustle, no bustle, nothing, in the silent necropolis. Miki ignored that that and drove her motorcycle past old and venerable buildings and parks… and the Empire State Building.

On the Empire State Building, King Ghidorah still perched like an unholy thing on the edge of the Abyss. Though the monster was almost a block away as Miki drove past on Broadway, she still had to fight the urge to vomit. A shadow against the darkness, the unmoving beast seemed almost dead on its perch but undead it was as illumination by black lightning. Turning her eyes away, Miki focused her attention on the road before her and sped up to get as far away as possible as soon as possible.

Rather difficult as she drove around the rubble of Times Square, she made it past the Theater District to Columbus Circle where she left Broadway and get on Central Park West. Driving alongside Manhattan's famous park, she found what she was looking for, the American Museum of Natural History. With that, Miki pulled her motorcycle to the left in front of the mammoth building, got off and left her Honda on the sidewalk; with the city abandoned, there was no fear of it being stolen. She walked up granite steps, between the columns, and under the high, monumental arches and was awed by the sheer size of it. As she got to the door, she tried to open it but found it locked; shrugging her shoulders, she concentrated and disabled it with a psychic blast.

With that, she pushed the door open and went inside, looking for someone across hall after hall. The first thing she did was look for the main shop where she rifled through models, books, DVDs and T-shirts. She found a map and, not wanting to be a thief, left the money on the empty counter. (Yes there was the motorcycle she had commandeered, but she planed to compensate the owner.) The Museum would never collect the money, but it was the thought that counted. With that, she began walking through the dimly lit halls though she saw few of the many things that once graced the museum. Like the Mayor had said, museum artifacts and the like across the city had been moved to safety soon after King Ghidorah arrived yet even so, Miki could still see some of the exhibits and other things that museum owners hadn't had time to rescue.

She quickly found the stairs and began climbing them. Even so she wanted to look around and stopped on each floor to see what else was there, looking at the Halls; the Hall of Culture, the Hall of Mammals, the Hall of Biodiversity, and the Hall of Birds. The Museum had everything; her powers showing her what she could not see, she saw exhibits on Vikings, chocolate, butterflies, Einstein, Vietnam, a life sized Blue Whale model, stuffed lions and more. One thing that caught her eye was the cast skeleton of a Barosaurus—a "long-neck" dinosaur—showing the animal rearing up on its hind legs and guarding its calf from an Allosaurus. It was on the second floor on the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and was very near to what she was looking for.

With that thought, she finally found it; it was the fourth and final floor where the Hall of Fossils was kept. In the ghostly silence and emptiness, there was an almost eeriness, an aura of mystery in the air. It wasn't dark but the lights were sparse and intermittent giving a strange feeling; walking from one pool of light to another she felt like she was being watched. The fact that her footsteps kept echoing again and again, over and over in the quiet, didn't help.

She kept walking along the giant bones of beasts from the dawn of time, creatures that time forgot, some beautiful and some grotesque. Reverently walking past all the mounted fossils, Miki saw the remains of the Trilobite and Smilodon and Eryops and the Nautilus and Dunkleosteus and Dimetrodon and Glyptodont. (With how they couldn't be moved, the museum curators were doubtlessly cursing themselves for using real fossils instead of copies.) She saw them as she walked through the Halls of Primitive Mammals, of Advanced Mammals, and that of Vertebrate Origins, but these were not what she was looking for. Yet she saw them, each and every one of them a creature from a land before time, creatures that men were never meant to know and should have lived on only in the minds of men.

It was odd that so many prehistoric and seemingly extinct beasts survive into the modern day as giant monsters but that was the point wasn't it? If they were to have lived for so long, was it not then arrogance for humans to think of them as being so very old when it was the human race that was so very young? Though the beasts were lambasted with claims of being a threat to the human race, weren't prehistoric survivors really just taking back what was rightfully theirs from a band of upstarts? Were the old races then just in destroying the younger races? Miki did not know the answer to this as she walked through the Halls, she merely beheld the parade of the History of Life and left herself undeterred as she kept searching. As one Hall led into another in a great circle, she kept looking and looking through the darkened museum and hearing nothing but her footsteps echoing.

Finally, after what seemed like 65,000,000 years, she finally found what she had been searching for, the sepulcher wherein resided the greatest beasts that ever walked the Earth, the Hall of Dinosaurs. She walked past the dinosaur skeletons on her left and her right and knew that a finer collection of fossils could not be found. She walked past Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Pachycephelosaurus, Apatosaurus, Iguanodon, and the others of Eden's menagerie for these were the true dinosaurs, the old ones and not their modern day descendants. Like most any child, Miki had loved dinosaurs. She was so very small and they were so very big; she'd imagined herself having their strength. That perhaps was why so many children loved dinosaurs. Mythical beasts of every size and name and description that are gone forever and that lived before time but at the same time leaving their very bones as proof they were real? Good God, if dinosaurs hadn't had existed, then someone would have had to invent them.

Walking along and leaving the lesser giants behind, she walked up behind the crowning glory of the Museum, a vast rotunda where the skeletons of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops were poised in mortal combat. Unlike the rest of the Museum, the lights set in the high ceiling of the huge round room had been left on and the battle was completely visible. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" Miki looked towards the railing that surrounded the exhibit and saw Kyle poised in between the two titans. He was leaning over the edge and looking at the gravel that was strewn on the ground until he looked at the beasts.

"Its true Miki, the way they're here, they're absolutely beautiful. Forever frozen in time, both poised for the final battle, circling each other; Triceratops with head lowered and horns pointing, Tyrannosaurus with jaws agape and claws ready. One, the King of the Dinosaurs, the mightiest hunter to ever walk the Earth, holding the power of life and death over his subjects. The other, the only enemy strong enough to challenge him, the strongest of all horned beasts and mightiest of plant eaters, a creature who feared nothing and kneeled to nobody."

With his back towards Miki, Kyle just looked at them. "The way they're here, making their war 65,000,000 years after they died, the mightiest of their breeds making their belligerence through all time, it's perfect. They're telling each other, 'It's the balance between predator and prey, between life and death, between eternal enemies, between you and I.'"

Still leaning on the railing, Kyle turned his face towards Miki and weakly smiled. "You came."

Miki returned the smile and gingerly walked towards the man, holding her hands in front of her. "That was because you I knew you'd be here. Back when we got together, you were always talking about how you father had taken both you and your big brother, Raymond, to the Museum when you were kids. Back in

May or April of last year when I was at Skull Island and I saw the dinosaurs on Skull Island, you told me how you'd both been so happy and that you hoped to take me here one day."

Kyle walked up to her. "Yeah, I was thinking that after you got back on your feet and you came here to New York, that maybe I could keep my promise… but that didn't go as planned. When you left and Ghidorah came and we were cut off, I was thinking about how I'd be able to reach you. Then I remembered what I said and for all the cliché I knew you'd come looking for me here so I decided, why disappoint? It's kind of appropriate to be here don't you think? You told me about how Ghidorah killed all the dinosaurs and that now he's coming for us.

He looked out to all the erected skeletons. "It's ironic. People have talked about how the dinos were the most successful group of animals that ever lived and that if not for some freak trillion to one meteor strike, they'd still be ruling the place. So in a way, we owe King Ghidorah and his creators our civilization because if not for him then we'd be lab rats in an evolved dinosaur's cage. Miki, you understand Godzilla better than anybody, so do you think that's why Godzilla hates humans so much? Y'know, he sees our civilization and knows that King Ghidorah gave rise to us? He sees what his kind could have been and maybe should have been?"

Miki sighed and walked over to the railing that surrounded the fossil skeletons. "Yeah, that's mainly it, he's all why should these upstarts live when my people died? That and other things too like what happened to the Lost World."

Kyle winced. "I remember when going to a Challenger High was a good thing…" At that, he grew silent and a faraway look came across his face and spoke. "We find living dinosaurs on a South American plateau and its dinomania. Professor Challenger brings back proof that the dinos are alive and everyone sends teams there. Some of them were good guys, they wanted to study the place and preserve it but too many were bad guys who just wanted to steal dinosaurs for circuses or to just go and hunt them on safari. Then we find Kong and Skull Island, it felt that dinosaurs were popping up everywhere and so 'what the hell! Let's take all we want, there's plenty more!' Yeah, sure…

"We tried to make El Tepui Grande into a nature preserve but it was too little too late because by then we'd broken the ecological balance. We were sorry and thought we were absolving ourselves when Shellabarger took the stars of Lothar Gluck's Fabulous Dinosaur Circus home. Belzoni's 'National Geographic' article called it the Dinosaur Summer but the plateau was already dying by 1947. Now, with every last dinosaur dead, the Lost World is nothing but a burned out heap unfit to grow dust.

"Future generations will say how we could have been so stupid; we had an entire Mesozoic ecosystem perfectly preserved 65,000,000 years after it should have been destroyed. It was it was trillion to one treasure, a gift from God, it was a test of how far we'd come." He went silent and began trembling until he threw his hands up in anger. "…and we screwed it up!"

Miki looked at the fossil exhibits and began crying. Biting back her quivering lip, she said, "I remember. I cried myself to sleep when I learned the story. Its ironic, people went crazy about dinosaurs after Challenger came back with proof of the Lost World and everyone had to have dinosaur everything. We forgot about these places and we stopped going to the museums; why should we go when we could go to a dinosaur zoo and see them in person or a circus.

"The circuses were the beginning of the end. Dinosaurs were here first, Earth was their world, we had no right to lock them away and make them jump through hoops!" At that, Miki froze and heard her voice echo through the halls, remembering stories of Triceratops bull fights and how every playboy had to have a duck-bill head mounted above the fireplace, stranger the crest the better. After that, Segeusa regained control of herself but trembled for a moment.

"I remember reading about how the first circuses had no idea of how to care about their dinosaurs and how everyone of them died, Circus Lothar was the only one whose dinosaurs survived. It was also the last dinosaur circus to go broke but it went broke because nobody cared. Soon enough, people forgot about the dinosaurs and took them for granted. The native people knew what to do. At Kahu Hidi, tribes all across the Amazon held the plateau as sacred and sent the bravest there to prove themselves heroes… and we took it from them. Like you said, it was only after all the dinosaurs at the Lost World were dead that we realized what we'd done.

"It's like that Rex skeleton there; it was found in 1902 by Barnum Brown. He was the last great fossil hunter and that was his last great find; you'd think that after finding it for the Museum that it would be put up by 1915 at the latest. It wasn't, I mean sure we all knew about Rex and sure he was always everyone's favorite with how we saw him fighting Kong on Skull Island or Triceratops at the Lost World, but with how we were able to see him in places like that, why bother seeing a bunch of bones ? It was only after every last dinosaur was dead and after every last 'lost world' was destroyed that we finally put the King's bones here. Maybe we do it because we felt sorry that we made the new exhibit the way it is and why it became the holy of holies, a temple to the dinosaurs where we can say we're sorry."

"And now maybe it's our turn to face extinction?" Kyle smiled. "Nah, the last time King Ghidorah came up against the human race we fought him to a standstill and when he went against Godzilla at the end of the Mesozoic, Godzilla mopped the floor with him. With Godzilla and humans working together, the three-headed monster doesn't stand a chance."

Miki laughed when she heard that. "Can this be true? The great Kyle Martin actually speaking good of Godzilla?"

"Don't push it," he said as he smirked. All of a sudden, he grew introspective and turned his head to look at the Tyrannosaur. "Miki, you talked about the Museums being temples to the dinosaurs. When I was a kid, I read a book about the ghost of a T-Rex who asked a human boy to return his fossil bones to him because he wanted to rest in peace. I've always asked myself what Godzilla would think of a place like this. What does he say?"

Miki shook her head. "I've tentatively 'asked' him that as a what-if sort of question. He feels museums like this are places of ghoulish grave robbery that put his fathers' bones on display, this one and this display especially since nearly all the bones here are the real ones. The display here reminds him of his father, Blood Fang."

"A world of gods and monsters…" sighed Kyle. "You know, I can't even imagine a world where giant monsters, lost civilizations, alien invaders, and living dinosaurs aren't real. With how boring that would be I'm not sure I'd want to."

Kyle turned away from Miki and began walking away until he reached a doorway leading out of the rotunda. A year after he thought of asking her to be his wife, the reporter's grandson still had the ring and he had it in his pocket. With his hand there and holding the ring, with his back turned towards the psychic, he looked down at a trashcan.

He said, "Miki, our relationship has never been an easy one and its been made even harder with the hell of the Monster Wars but I always hoped that we were at least going to try to love each other. But its kind of odd, you come here and despite how this is supposed to be all romantic, we begin talking about monsters and dinosaurs. Did you come here worried about me? After all, I know you're always worried about him. So tell me, you're thinking about him right now, aren't you?"

He turned his head around and said, "C'mon, I won't hold it against you. If you don't want to say it, I understand but if you're worried about the lizard, tell me so that that way I know how to look at you."

Even without using her powers, Miki knew what this meant. She didn't know that Kyle was holding a ring in his hand, she'd never stoop so low as to scan him without permission, but in her heart she felt that if she said yes, that Kyle would walk out of the door and never return. He'd almost done that when he asked her to choose and it hadn't been helped when she had exploded in front of the panel. Miki was tempted to say no, tell Kyle what he wanted to hear, because she knew he would stay but it would be love based on a lie.

"Kyle… you know I can't lie to you…" With a dry mouth, Miki desperately searched for the best words to use. "In coming here, in the back of my mind, I did think of Godzilla. I, I am worried about him."

On hearing those words, Kyle felt a sting cut through him. Though deep down inside, he had always known that it could never work out between them, this was the final straw for him. Looking at the trashcan at his side, Kyle pulled his hand out of his pant's pocket and thought to throw the ring away, throw away hope for he and Miki and forget about it, forever. As for Miki, she really had been thinking about Godzilla as she went searching for Kyle; she'd been thinking about how he had "told" her that if he died in the last battle that "the human" would be able to protect her for him. "Yes Kyle, I was worried about Godzilla… and about you."

At that, Kyle's hand froze where it was and held the ring in his hand. He and Miki turned towards each other and looked at one another for the longest time.

[Please note that the real American Museum of Natural History has neither a display featuring Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus fighting each other in a Rotunda, nor just one Hall of Dinosaurs. It has two Halls of Dinosaurs, one for Ornithiscian, or bird hipped, and another for Saurischian, or lizard hipped, dinosaurs. However, it was more dramatic to have Kyle seeing the battle and to say Miki found him in **the** Hall of Dinosaurs rather than in just **a** Hall of Dinosaurs. However, the Museum does indeed have a T-Rex skeleton and it really is the very first ever discovered (and, in 1915, the very first ever mounted). It was found in 1902 in Hell Creek, Montana, by Barnum Brown. There also is a Barosaurus model on the second floor in the position described and the majority of the fossils on display are the real fossils as opposed to reproductions.  
The dinosaur circus and the usage of the Lost World/El Tepui Grande is from Greg Bear's "Dinosaur Summer." It's an interesting book that I recommend.]


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Ten

At the Observation Deck, General Rhodes spiritlessly paced back and forth along on the catwalk. How long she'd been there, she didn't know but she when she finally stopped and looked down she saw her red suited staff silently, morosely going about their duties below her. She kept thinking about all that had happened over the past year and even asked herself if it was somehow her fault. Yes, she had done everything within her power, but the fact still remained that it had been her duty to keep Earth safe from those threats extraterrestrial and she had failed. When the time came to reward the faith placed on her, when those she had sworn to protect had needed her the most, she had failed them. Despairing, she felt as if the gravity generator had been set to twice its output; she chafed underneath her white turtleneck and open red suit. She then looked up to see Earth.

The Observation Deck had been designed with a huge window to showcase the lunar landscape and the Earth as it rose over it. It was there to always remind the people on Base just what is was they might one day have to fight for. With what was happening, it only served to gall Rhodes. From her place high on the catwalk, she had an unparalleled view of Earth but when she looked up to see it, she saw storm clouds of typhoons and hurricanes covering a quarter of the world and could make out volcanoes spewing fire and brimstone. Worse, on the right of the North American continent she saw that horrendous black and red storm clouds thicker than Skull Island fog were spreading for hundreds of miles in all directions from New York City. On allowing herself a look across the Atlantic she saw Egypt… which was still glowing. Unlike with the American Great Plains, Anti-Nuclear Energy bacteria was far less effective in Cairo because of the nature of the explosion so it was going to glowing for a long time.

The General knew she had to be strong, she had a job to do and regardless of what had passed people were still depending on her… but the pain and guilt she bore were so great. Turning her gaze away from the diamond studded black velvet that was space and the Earth held up in it, she looked down to its satellite on which she was on and saw the UN flag in the distance, planted on Mare Serenitatis, one of the largest of the gray Moon's soft silver plains and the same plain the base was on. It was where men from the planet Earth, first set foot upon the Moon, coming in peace for all mankind. It was when Melissa Rhodes saw that, that she recalled what a stalwart, lunar, friend of hers, Serenity, had said: You know, my granddaughter, Rini, has a friend named Melissa, both of them go to Harbor Elementary over in Crossroads. Things might get tough but that's when I remember what she and my little girl Serena give me; King Ghidorah might be a terrible enemy but we have love on our side, something he will never have.

General Rhodes remembered her friend's words and sighed as she looked to the little blue marble that was Earth. She knew that the solar panels would power their self sufficient Moon Base for as long as the sun shone, that the Base was capable of recycling air and water indefinitely, and that their moon grown crops in the "green house" could provide food enough for years. So yes, even if Earth was destroyed, Rhodes and her team could survive… but would they want to? Some people had deserted and had left in the last shuttle bound for Cape Canaveral to die with their families, the die-hards had given their families tearful goodbyes and vowed to stay at their posts until the end, for their sakes. Leader that she was, the General had stayed as had her friend Serenity—honestly, she thought that Serenity would sooner die and be a ghost on the moon that leave Luna.

She just hoped that whatever it was that Secretary General Santos had planned, he would do it and do it soon.

In the UN military base beneath Manhattan, the men and women of the DFE and G-Force were getting into their positions for a battle mere hours away. Secretary General Santos and Director Goodhue were on the second level of the chief command center, overlooking the workings on the main level below. If anything it was even more advanced, more intimidating than the main G-Force in Japan but the two men were unfazed as they saw the people below working desperately at their various tasks. The urgency of this was seen in the IMAX like main screen at the front that was broadcasting video feeds of five tornadoes destroying the remains of Calgary, Canada; of Moscow, Russia, leveled by 8.9 level earthquake; of Bombay, India, flooded and destroyed by typhoons; and of other natural disasters going around the world.

Though he never forgot his roots the Secretary General was a cosmopolitan man and more so, he had to be with the responsibilities he had. For that, he loved all the peoples of the world as his people, he loved all cultures as his culture, and he loved all whole planet as his planet. So when Santos saw the images on the screen, the Gobi freezing over and the Amazon rain forest in flames from unlimited lightning strikes, and felt himself poisoned with hatred towards King Ghidorah. It was just as the Elias had predicted. Soon enough, the image on the screen turned to one of King Ghidorah whom Secretary General knew was mere miles from where he was. The child of Satan was going to destroy the world unless stopped and the chaos Earth was hemorrhaging was proof of it.

However, while he was willing to fight by any means necessary to protect his world, there was one thing that turned his stomach. Santos leaned over the railing and looked down on his staff; after seeing them in silence, he turned towards his number one fighting man. "Are you sure that there isn't any other way out of this? It not only feels unnecessary but if there's any truth to his being an intelligent being, then this is betrayal of the very worst kind. We promised Segeusa."

Director Goodhue placed his hand on his leader's shoulders. "Sir, the reason UNGCC was formed was to deal with him first and foremost and though he might have been sidetracked by the Monster Wars, he'll just be at it again after this. I've spoken with Aso on this and he's already told our officers in the field. We've told them and our secret weapon. I don't like the idea any more than you do, but this is going to be the very best chance we'll ever have of stopping him once and for all."

The de facto king of the world shook his black and gray, salt and pepper head. Sighing, he said, "If this were up to me and me alone, I'd be against it but this is your field of expertise so I'll trust what you say Director."

At that, a young black woman ran through a pair of doors and looked around the balcony. "Mr. Santos, Mr. Santos!"

The man went up to her and said, "I'm here. What is it?"

With a worried look on her face, the woman looked up the Secretary General. "Sir, President Emmerich wants to speak to you right away and he's not taking no for an answer."

Their owner barely able to keep himself in check, two fists curled so tightly into balls of rock that the nails dug into the palms and made them bleed. "Him, is it? Well then, just tell him to call my secretary and to get in line for an appointment. And meanwhile, tell him to stand outside of White House III so one of the soccer ball sized hailstones that are falling over in Boston can split his fool head open!"

"I don't think so sir. He's not on the phone, he's in the building on the lower floor right below us, right here, right now and he's called your secretary every name in the book."

With a scowl and a growl, Santos slammed his fist so hard on the railing that it bent. "That's it. End of the rope, end of the line, because I've had it up to here! Show me where the imperialist pig is so I can crucify him myself!"

After literally tearing the door off its hinges as he stormed out, the Secretary General stomped out into nearest stairwell and hunted the main floor for his prey. As for the people there, they visibly cringed as they felt their leader's "bad vibes" and immediately turned away and huddled in fear. Soon enough, surrounded by computer stations screens, and workers, Santos found President Emmerich, with an angry faced Vice President Smith and a few others at his side.

Angrily pointing an accusatory finger at the President, Santos said, "What are you doing here you bald-headed buffoon? I thought I told you to never come near me again."

Incensed by that remark, the President retorted, "You have no right to speak to me like that so shut up you left wing wacko! If this were up to you, we'd be having tea parties with that three-headed freak and you're showing that with making your little war zone right here in NYC!"

At that, the Secretary General anger was stilled and the men stopped. "I have no choice Emmerich. He has to be stopped now before it's too late."

The American Emperor rolled his eyes and shouted, "So you say. Once we get that monster out of there, a full nuclear strike would do the job and overload the monster. We just-"

"Shut up! I am sick and tired of your stupid rants. In case you haven't been paying attention there's a global emergency and we have to stop it by whatever means necessary!"

"Santos is right sir." On hearing the bitter edge to a hard voice, both men turned towards the man who said that and were startled to see it was Vice President Smith. Over the course of the Monster Wars it had been rumored that the man was fed up with his job, but an act of outright defiance? "Mr. President, I wish there was some other way to end this but there isn't; if we hesitate, then it will be too late to stop King Ghidorah."

"I don't believe it… This… This is mutiny! If it weren't for me Smith, you'd still be filing paperwork in a backwater Bio-Major office!"

Gritting his teeth, Smith wished he had stayed in that office. "Mr. President," he said, or hissed, exceedingly slowly, "King Ghidorah must be destroyed… no matter what… Please sir… just hear me out."

To his credit, he stayed silent while his subordinate spoke. "There's no risk of civilian casualties since the city has already been evacuated and things like museum artifacts and art works have all been taken to safety. You won't have to worry about backlash from the American public with how people are protesting in favor of New York's sacrifice."

With that everyone grew silent as they waited for the President's reaction but it was slow and forthcoming. Confused he searched for his dyslexicon for the words and found them. "I don't get it… what are you talking about Smith? You can't mean you're against me."

The Vice President snapped at this and yelled, "Won't you understand you idiot? Santos is right and you're wrong, we have to do what he says regardless of what happens to ourselves. Even if we do get thrown out of office… then it will be penance for our sins. You have to go with the plan or else because if you don't, you'll be sorry! King Ghidorah will surely come to get us, he'll completely destroy the Earth!"

At the height of his petulance, Emmerich frowned and desperately sputtered, "You're crazy, you're a fool! You… Y-You turncoat… I'm your leader! You do what I say! I'm right and nobody else! 'Penance for sins' What sins!"

At that, the Secretary General lost all pretense of self control and angrily threw the man against a support beam. "Listen to me you dirty rotten bastard, and _don't you say that I '__misunderestimate'__ you!_ You have a moral responsibility and you've been shirking it from the beginning of the Monster Wars. Hell, even before that! Ever since you went saying forget the Kyoto Protocols and saying tax cuts by the dozen for the super rich only and went let's open the meteor with world opinion going straight to hell…"

Dangling from Secretary General's grasp, the President coughed and gasped, "But I am doing something. I'm trying to make things better…"

"No you're not," Santos sneered. "Not only did you open that sphere and free King Ghidorah after everyone warned you not to, not only did you keep Area 51 a secret, but you refuse to take any responsibility. Wartime or not, martial law be damned, Congress has impeached you. That means they're going to put you on trail for what you've done. They're going to fire you for having brought that thing here, do you want me to tell Congress that you kept Area 51 a secret?"

Devlin Emmerich kicked screamed, "Don't you have any respect for nation's rights? I could have you arrested for doing this to me!"

Santos seemingly burned his gaze straight through the man who would be king. "That's if the person doing it is a United States citizen which I am not. Get this through your head… if you want to be a worthless little tin pot dictator, FINE but when it's past your nation it's my job. You lead the United States. I lead the United **Nations!** Got that! **When the world is at stake, ****I RUN THE SHOW****!"**

With that, he released his grip on the President and threw the man to the floor. There, Emmerich bent over, gasped for breath, and clutched his throat before being helped to his feet by his Secret Service Agents. (At that, the man noticed that they had done nothing to help him in his recent predicament.) As President of the United States, Devlin Emmerich wielded great power but now, he finally realized that he was up against someone far, far stromger. Cowed by the Secretary General, the man could say no more and went completely silent. He then just unruffled his jacket looked around to see all the people staring at him, and after staring at Santos turned around and walked away. There was no fuss, no muss, he just got up and walked away and as the Secretary General saw this, he was glad of it.

Six eyes opened and three heads rose on three sinuous necks. Six eyes gleamed red with hate and loathing and they scanned the dead city that spread in all directions below one body. Six eyes looked south past the island of Manhattan, past Brooklyn, past Bays and islands, to the Atlantic, the sea from which his enemy would come. King Ghidorah knew not if he would win the battle or if it would be his enemy that would claim victory nor did he care, all he knew was this was to be their last battle for only one would walk away alive.

From his perch on the Empire State Building, beneath a darkened night sky, and surly from ape stink, King Ghidorah arched his back and stretched his golden wings to the utmost. Beneath a darkened night sky whose clouds covered the stars and shot out black lightning, the Star of Doom threw his heads forwards. He let out the Satanic cries of a thing cast out and damned, cries that shattered every window on the island into a thousand shards and that drove those that heard to madness. He cried out because at last, AT LAST it was time!

With that, the black clouds that spat black lightning began swirling around faster and faster as in a roiling cauldron and the black lightning grew in savagery. Around the world, plants withered and died in seconds, people sick in hospitals thrashed in agony before their cardiographs went beeeep, waters were poisoned; it was felt everywhere. Now the end would come and around the world in a single hideous wave of evil.

On Infant Island, where they used a psychic salve to heal their moths, the Elias fell to their knees and screamed in the cool dark volcanic caverns. Trembling in fear and cold, Moll and Lora huddled against Mothra even as Belvera stood before Batttra with a haunted look on her face.

Knuckle walking to the edge of his mountain, the old, battle scarred Kong beheld his island and felt an icy wind blow across the rain forest; if it were King Ghidorah, the simian wasn't sure if he would ever forgive himself for having done so little to help Godzilla.

By Hudson Bay and standing over the mutilated corpse of a dorat, the blood stained Lupis was startled when the dead thing rose up, lungs falling out of the cavity in its chest along with the heart. Panicked and baring his fangs, the silver wolf rushed to the throat and tore against the zombie's neck until the head fell off. Though now the dorat stayed dead, the wolf monster put his tail between his and howled.

In space, the people on the Moon Base and on the space stations remaining in orbit rushed to their windows and saw something that would give them nightmares for the rest of their lives. They saw it, gasped, and spoke to each other in hushed tones. As if the Earth was made like burnt paper, there were gargantuan lines larger than any canyon or river flare around the world all across continents and oceans in the pattern of human veins, flaring white and then fading into the red of congealed blood.

Worse still, the fading continued when the Sol itself turned to darkness as if in an eclipse. People on the ground saw the black sun and ran in terror through the streets, trampling others beneath them in maddened mobs. It was like an eclipse yet it was not because the sun turned to pitch where day shone and where it was night, the pearl of the moon became obsidian. Scientists would theorize that the corrupted energy field was reflecting solar energy away into space but all who saw it knew that darkness had come to cover the whole of the Earth like a pall. With the sun gone black and the globe infected with the power of darkness, the world was poised at the very brink of total oblivion.

On Earth, in North America, in the United States, in New York, in Manhattan, King Ghidorah looked out to the waters of the Atlantic and saw a ripple, a speck but the Prince of Skyllans smiled for he knew what that speck was: Godzilla.

Miki was walking silently down a dirty darkened alleyway when a hideous look came across her face leaving her to fall to her hands and knees in the cold, concrete, ground and go into convulsions. Shocked, Kyle went down and tried to hold her still but she uncharacteristically, tossed his hand aside and let herself tremble on her hands and knees. After a time, she accepted Kyle's hand and got back up. This was all done in silence and it was seen that to keep it so, she had bitten her lips down so hard that it bled. On seeing his love deathly pale and gasping for air, Martin looked into her ringed eyes and whispered, "What happened?"

"What happened?" Miki hissed. "You can't mean to say that you didn't feel it! Wait, you have no empathy, of course you couldn't feel it. King Ghidorah's is going to use World Extinction in a matter of hours, he's already begun the process. That's what I felt. If you want proof, just look up."

The reporter's grandson looked up and saw that the black lightning was increasing ten fold and that roiling, black and red were swirling around the raving three-headed monster. Most frighteningly of all, there was a huge black sphere in the sky directly above where King Ghidorah was perched from which darkness seemed to bleed out and that seemingly swallowed into itself all the storm clouds that surrounded it. At that, Kyle closed his eyes and fell against the warehouse wall, feeling freezing wind blast past him. "Oh no… Then that means we have got to get in right now. Have they seen us?"

From behind a warehouse, Miki peeked around the corner and saw armed soldiers on patrol. Searchlights scanned to and fro and armored vehicles drove on. "No, they haven't seen us Kyle and they won't see us at all."

With that, her eyes shone gold just before she shut them and she sprinted past the warehouse into plain view where she began shouting. Kyle saw that and ran after her in panic. On grabbing her, he shook her violently. "Miki what are you doing! Are you… crazy?"

He stopped and looked around; despite Miss Segeusa's outburst, there was absolutely no reaction on part of anyone. Confused, he whispered, "What do you mean Miki? Did you use your powers or something?"

Not turning around to face Kyle Martin, she said, "The clouded mind sees nothing, it's a trick Princess Salno taught me. They can't see or hear us."

The reporter's grandson smirked as a soldier walked straight past him. "Like the Shadow, eh?" On turning around he saw that the soldier stopped on seeing a shadow that came from no source. Definitely like Shadow, he thought.

"Maybe so but we got to get past them right now," said the psychic. The kaijuologist knew she was right and the pair slipped furtively from shade to shade, not wanting to risk overtaxing Miki's powers. As they did so, they inched ever closer to the Jersey City docks and hopefully a ship to take them back to Manhattan.

After she had come back with Kyle from the Museum and Steven Martin where he was hiding in a subway station, it had caused quite an uproar; people were of course glad to see that both men were alive but they were slightly distrustful of the young lady. With that UNGCC high command had given direct orders for her not to go to Manhattan to be there for Godzilla when he came for King Ghidorah. She had told them that he would need her for the plan but they had just said no. Aside from that it was for her own safety, there hadn't been any explanation but to Miki that just meant that she wouldn't have to give an explanation when she went in.

When they slipped behind a large building and looked back to see if they had left anything that might give them away, Miki turned to Kyle and, out of habit, whispered, "Kyle, I appreciate your coming with me, but why? If they find me, they might go easy on me with how they need me for Godzilla but with you record being what it is, they'll lock you up and throw away the key… Provided that we all don't get killed."

Kyle grew silent before speaking up. "Where you go, I go Miki. Besides, I talked with my grandpa and he reminded me that I'm sticking with Godzilla until the end."

Segeusa smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek. "C'mon then."

Soon enough they left the last warehouses behind them and reached the waterfront. There were fall less soldiers there than they had expected but you have no need of a blockade when you own the port. After looking around and seeing that there were no soldiers there and double checking with a psychic scan, Miki dropped her field of invisibility. Confident that neither Miki nor himself would be seen, Kyle smiled and checked his backpack; the contents were still there and at that he frowned.

"Hi!"

At that, the pair fearfully turned around and looked to see who said that. They saw someone climb up from beneath the docks and say, "You're Kyle Martin and Miki Segeusa aren't you?"

The blonde kaijuologist looked to the sheepish psychic who merely shrugged her shoulders. She later said that she had been scanning for a soldier's thoughts, she had no reason to expect anyone else in the area.

After stepping into the light, an Asian woman with short cropped hair appeared. The reporter's grandson saw her and said, "Yeah and you're, you're Connie Matsu… The men behind you must be Ronald Brown."

Coming from behind her a burley man with a camera on his shoulder stepped into view. "Guilty as charged. Call me Ronnie." He shook their hands.

Confused, Miki looked at them and said, "But, why are you here?"

Connie Matsu smirked. "Same reason you're here I suppose, to get ringside seats for the battle of the millennium and I think that you, like us, aren't supposed to be here." She saw Miki smile. "Don't worry Miss Segeusa, I won't tell if you won't, but I'm guessing that you're looking for a way in too." She saw Miki and Kyle nod. "Come with me."

As she and Ronnie led the two down the ladder towards the lower docks amidst the gale, they smelled the sharp, cold, salty air. They felt the lower dock move slightly with the water and right in front of them they saw a mid sized boat. Ronnie shouted over the thunder, "After using our press passes to get past GI Joe there we made our way to the Jersey docks. Since the bridges and tunnels had been cut off, we then went looking around for a way to cross the Hudson into Manhattan and we saw this beauty."

Segeusa looked the boat over and saw that it was an outboard cruiser boat. Not bothering to look up, she ran her hand across it and said, "Miss Connie Matsu, I'm sure you and Ronnie know that there is a complete news blackout and, since New York is a now a restricted military area, you're facing ten to twenty years in prison if you go in."

Mulling over Miki's words, Matsu climbed into the boat and even tried to hotwire it. Looking up from her efforts, she said, "I know that and that since you're a UNGCC employee, who knows what they'd do to you. Besides, we know Godzilla's going to win, he's got to, and I'm going to make sure that the entire world is there to see it."

Miss Segeusa whispered, "He has to win. World Extinction has already begun." She saw Ronnie and Connie freeze at that. "Yes, it's started. The next few hours will mean everything."

"Oh…" After hearing it, the reporter lady swallowed and numbly struggled to start the engine. "So, ugh, you coming?"

Miki offered a weak smile. "Let me help. My father was a ferryman back on Odo Island, he taught me all about boats like these."

Segeusa climbed into the boat and went to work trying to start the vessel and soon enough, it sputtered to life. As the boat went on its way, Kyle and Ronnie jumped in and took their positions, Ronnie with his camera ready to film anything and Kyle at Miki's side. Segeusa was steering the boat along with a desperate look on her face but on Martin's face there was only apprehension. He knew that his girlfriend was too trusting of him—and of Aso—to read his mind, why she hadn't even bothered to ask him about his backpack, but he was still hesitant about what Aso had said. Kyle looked to Miki as she steered the boat across the heaving waves of the Hudson, through thunder and lightning and gale, and sighed, his breath visible in the cold, night air. With a heavy heart that he knew would break, he knew that despite their spats, Miki loved him, she trusted him with all her heart, she believed in him so much… and he was going to betray that trust by killing Godzilla.

[At the start of the chapter, I mention a UN Moon Base. In our world there is, of course, no Moon Base on the lunar plain Mare Serenatatis, or Sea of Serenity, nor is a UN flag on the Moon . The true lunar landing of 1969 took place in Mare Tranquillitatis and left an American flag. In this story's context, I justify the difference on grounds that, after the Mysterian invasion (as seen in the 1957 Toho film, Mysterians) which I have included, the nations of the world banded together and began to think of themselves as one planet. It was then as one planet that the lunar landing took place under the UN—thus truly coming in peace for all mankind—, which is shown to be far more powerful than it is on our world as a result of alien invasions and other global crises. The Moon Base was inspired by the Moon Base in Destroy All Monsters. As for the different landing place in particular, if you know your anime and you know my favorite anime then you know which Serenity I'm talking about.] 


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Eleven

Completely surrounding Manhattan along the New Jersey side of the Hudson, on the sides of Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens facing it was a legion of soldiers and reporters. Veritable swarms of attack helicopters filled the skies and fighter planes made pass after pass roaring pass; battleships, frigates, and submarines ran through the Hudson and East Rivers, Upper and Lower New York Bays and the other Bays; infantry, tanks, rocket launchers, howitzers and other artillery, were on the land areas surrounding ground zero. The men and women of the armed forces were officially there to contain Godzilla and King Ghidorah's battle—and they were unofficially there to shoot anybody who tried to get in.

In any case, they were ready and at their sides was the press in ways unseen in years. By that time, it was known world wide that the final battle was to be held in New York City and, with the sun just having gone black, what was at stake. News people from the New York Times to the National Inquirer were there surrounding the island, writing for the presses or reporting for the camera. Their reports were going into every language in the world because they were being heard in every corner of the world. Spanish, Polish, Vietnamese, Farsi, all were heard as row after row of reporters with backs towards the Hudson and faces towards the cameras looked to their audiences and spoke on, trying to keep fear out of their voices. The words were heard, "There has been no comment from the President." "There is the question of refugees." "If we survive, the balance of world power will be irrevocably altered."

One of the reporters was a middle aged man dressed in suit and tie reporting directly across the Hudson from Manhattan. He said, "Hello everyone, here for UWTN, I'm James Lawrence. As you can see in the soldiers and tanks before me, the ships behind me, and the planes above me, the entire New York metropolitan area has been converted into a military theater with all guns pointed towards Manhattan. Manning those guns are soldiers from the Defense Force of Earth's Ground Defense Force, in the skies are aircraft from the Aerial Defense Force of Earth, the port city's waterways and harbors are ships from the Maritime Defense Force. That is because, as Commander-in-Chief of his nation's Armed Forces, President Emmerich has ensured there will be minimal American involvement, making this an entirely United Nations action.

"In any case, these fighting men and women from around the world will be needed soon since, according to the latest information… the sun has gone black in plunging the earth into darkness, literally. Though there are some suspicions, nobody is sure. Not only that, but subs have reported Godzilla in the Atlantic and is less than an hour away from lower New York Bay. They are stationed in New Jersey, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island for the purpose of containing the coming battle between Godzilla and King Ghidorah to Manhattan.

"With the exception of the subterranean UN command post where operations are being coordinated, the island has been evacuated and is closed off to all nonessential personal. Several of us have asked for permission to go inside and report firsthand but after speaking with Captain Tomas Santos, son of Secretary General Miguel Santos and formerly Lieutenant, this was revealed to be impossible for military efficiency and to avoid getting in Godzilla's way as he battles King Ghidorah. Even camera drones have been prohibited. As a result, all reports are limited to New Jersey and the boroughs surrounding the city despite requests to be allowed entrance.

"In any case, UWTN and your other news affiliates will keep you posted as the situation develops. This is James Lawrence. Jersey City, New Jersey."

Somewhere in northern Greenwich Village, Manhattan, there was a large, nondescript, thirty story tall building that gave a perfect view of the entire island; in one direction you could see Chinatown, Little Italy, and the Civic Center while in the other direction you could see Harlem, the West Side, and the Theater District. There was nothing to distinguish the building from the hundreds of other buildings like it across the whole city and that of course was the reason that it had been chosen.

A few minutes earlier the two reporters and the two kaijuologists had made their way to a building through the abandoned streets and had come across a tall building that Miki Segeusa had seen by Remote Viewing would be perfect for their purposes. There, on the roof they were setting up shop, Ronnie and Connie were getting their cameras and satellite dish ready and Miki was helping them. However, Kyle was by himself in a corner, behind the doorway that led downstairs over looking the contents of his backpack. Miki knew that he had had something there but she had been told that it was "a scientific instrument" and she had believed it. Huddled in his corner, looking over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was watching him, he saw what it was: Project Toxin.

It was his baby and he was ready to use it for the last time; the first he'd used it was back on Infant Island, before the Monster Wars had even begun. He was assembling the bazooka and was combining the chemical and biological agents that would graft onto Godzilla's DNA and circumnavigate his healing power and kill him. Kyle knew it would, work he had used it against the monster at the start of the Monster Wars, but with the little immunity that the beast had since developed it would now die a slow and lingering death. Sick and guilty for how he was going to betray Miki and for the very though he was going to do, the words Commander Aso had given him began going through his mind.

He screwed the barrel of the gun to the body. _Kyle, I've had an eye on you ever since you joined G-Force._

Kyle sweated as he removed the vial of genetically enhanced Rhedosaurus blood. _More than most anybody I've ever met, you know the threat that Godzilla poses. __  
_  
The reporter's grandson slowly poured it and the crushed isotopes that would bond it to the monsters DNA as he unscrewed bazooka shell. _If we get lucky, Godzilla and King Ghidorah will kill each other but if not we need a way to end him forever_.

After holding the vials of poison and isotope until the very last drop was poured, he screwed the top back as hard as he could. Through the clear plastic he could see them violently boil as they mixed. _We both know that any mercy he would show is a temporary one at best and that after King Ghidorah he will only go back against us… unless we strike him first_.

The kaijuologist checked the shell and ran the calculations through his head one last time. They were sound, he had every reason to place his faith in Project Toxin and its delivery system, after all he had designed them. What he didn't now was if he could place his faith in using it. _I've talked it over with Goodhue and Hayashida and they all agree with me. We'll never have as good an opportunity to get rid of Godzilla once and for all. After Godzilla kills King Ghidorah, you'll use the Toxin to destroy him. __  
_  
Kyle Martin placed the shell in the bazooka and heard it go shick-shack. _After all if you don't, then we'll have go in and kill Godzilla ourselves. We'll be able to do it in the weakened state he'll be in but the cost will still be high, a cost that can be averted if you just do your duty, a duty you once begged for. Godzilla almost killed your grandfather all those years ago and he would have crippled Miki. He even killed your brother. Don't you owe it to them to avenge them, don't you owe it to your family to kill the one that's inflicted so much pain on them? __  
_  
The gun was ready, but Kyle asked himself if it would only be that simple. But, as Kyle knew, there were others out there for whom it was much more simple. The UN troops there were ready to follow their orders to the death, either theirs or their enemy's. While the enlisted men were in the dark as they often are, their officers had all been briefed by Commander Aso on what to do if which monster survived. If King Ghidorah were to live then they would, of course, destroy him but if Godzilla were to survive then he would be their target. The military hardware combined with the state that Godzilla would be in meant that victory would be certain.

Aso knew that the officers commanding the troops below him would do their duty and that the unwitting soldiers below them would follow any order immediately and without question. After all, that was what a soldier did, obey orders. Would there be any moral reservations against this? Probably not. Yes Aso had given Miki Segeusa his solemn vow that he would not harm her precious Godzilla who was going to "save" them all but a general sometimes just has to make these choices. Watching the images beamed to the main screen, Aso also knew that the soldiers in the field would have no problem attacking Godzilla after it was all over. Being that Godzilla was the very same monster that had killed so many of them, they looked at a pact with him as little more than a deal with the devil.

But for all that, the soldiers there could not be said to be bad men. A true soldier does what he does out of love for his country and not for hatred of his enemy. And while a soldier's mission might sometimes be to kill his enemy, a good soldier feels no joy for killing his fellow man. But that was the point, Godzilla wasn't human, he was instead a monster who had caused destruction untold. It was not surprising then, that they had no pity for him, to them it was little more than putting down a mad dog. Add that to the fact that no matter how little pleasure a soldier might take in killing his fellow human beings he does it anyways, and how accepting he is of death as to accept it as his daily bread, the soldiers there would kill Godzilla without a second thought. There were of course some officers who knew what they were being asked to do and questioned it such as Captain Santos, and his men, in Land MOGUERA but people like him were the exception to the rule and even they were willing to follow their orders. This was seen in troops like the crew of Gryphon who accepted what was given them as if it were fetching a glass of water.

Its wasn't that the soldiers there were bad men, its just that after too many battles a soldier just stops feeling.

In Chicago, where United World Television News' newly rebuilt main offices had just opened for business, a fat technician was gluttonously eating away at his double bacon chili cheese burger, careful not to spill any of the slop on the control panel. Scanning the near dozen screens, video equipment, and tapes that shared his tiny, cramped room, he spared a glance at his grease stained shirt and shrugged it off. With everything in its dimly lit predictable place, he was caught off guard, when he heard an electronic voice say, "You've got mail."

The slob wheeled his chair towards the computer and saw a letter in the mailbox marked URGENT. On seeing it was from Connie Matsu, the fat man wondered what she was up to and clicked read seeing a message that exclaimed; underlined, in bold, and in capitals; "PLEASE, PICK UP TRANSPONDER CFX1 NOW!" Though confused, the fat man bit off a huge piece of his hamburger and did as he was told, plugging in the satellite feed.

"Am I on?" The technician saw UWTN's top reporter on the television feed. Fighting the windy gusts, the reporter turned her head around for a time before looking to her side of the laptop computer screen and saw that the Vid-phone was hooked up. "It's you, uh, whoever you are… but thank God you're here!"

He dropped a pile of onion rings into his mouth and burped. "You, whatever it is, it better be good to get a direct link like this."

Connie Matsu pursed her lips and drew in a slow breath. "Oh it is. You have to put me on live TV. Right. Now."

"Put you on just like that?" The technician sipped his soda and laughed.

"Well, Connie I guess well just have to show him what's up. Keep an eye on the other screen." The fat man frowned and turned away from the screen that showed the fuzzy laptop computer vid-phone image of Miss. Matsu and towards the screen that showed what it was that Ronnie was filming. The crisp image whipped around from the reporter and to a gigantic building. The fat man sipped his soda as the camera slowly panned upwards… to show it was the Empire State Building, atop which King Ghidorah screamed and tossed his heads.

In the dimly lit control room, the technician spit out the soda in shook. "Oh dear God! It's K-King Ghidorah! You're in Manhattan, you're in Manhattan, and, and oh hot damn!"

Ignoring the laptop and its vid-phone properties, she went straight to the camera and grabbed the lens. Her face greatly enlarged and distorted, she said, "Listen… whoever you are. I'm here, I've got a story to tell, and we got to get it out. Can you help me?"

Absently mindedly nodding to a screen through which he could not be seen, he numbly went to his keyboard. Very soon, the message was patched in and every television tuned in to UWTN went wild with static before settling on a certain reporter. In that, the darkest night, that certain reporter stood with her back facing the towering Empire State Building and the entire mighty Manhattan skyline… and atop the Empire State Building, a certain monster. "Hello, everyone. Interrupting your broadcasts, this is Connie Matsu, live on the scene in Greenwich Village, Manhattan."

Moping in Air Force One as it whisked him back to Boston, the president was watching TV when an aide said, "Sir, I think you better change the channel to UWTN! Important news." Too dejected to do anything else, Emmerich changed the channel and was shocked as he saw King Ghidorah in the background behind a woman reporter.

"I and my associates, Ronald Brown the camera man, Kyle Martin, UNGCC kaijuologist, and Miki Segeusa, UNGCC psychic, have made our way to a restricted military area to report on the story of the century. Though technicians at United World Television News are sending this signal to every station they can hook up to in hopes that it will be spread to every TV and radio, I take full responsibility. This isn't the first time I've gone to a restricted area but this time, I know the penalties might well be much harsher. We all know the penalties we may face and, provided that we survive, we won't run. We all freely admit guilt and after all this is done, we'll go to jail peacefully, quietly, but for now, this story must be told."

Sick in his bed, Steven Martin smiled as he saw his grandson and Miki had made it to Manhattan. He then coughed and reached over in the darkened room to get a cough drop; even so, he smiled as it was his old news crew and Matsu at that that had gotten the story. He got the remote control and increased the volume.

"This really is incredible, it like a scene from an old sci-fi movie. A giant flying monster appears in the sky above New York and is perched atop the Empire State Building, completely immobile looking down on us as if to challenge mankind for rulership of this planet. One year ago, as you all know, King Ghidorah came to destroy the world and since then, he's brought Earth to its knees. As you also all know, he's finished toying with us and plans to destroy all life and he will if not stopped."

In a small house in Tokyo, Emiko Yamani, with her nephew, Keniche, was watching the events unfold on TV. She saw this and knew that it would all come down to the beast that her father had named Godzilla all those years ago.

"Sadly enough the worst is yet to come. Can you please tell us just exactly what's happening Mr. Martin?"

"Certainly. As we all know King Ghidorah has been planning a final attack against Earth to destroy all living things ever since making his way to New York City. However, what we didn't know until just a few moments ago when, as we heard the sun turned black, is that we're on a completely different timetable; we don't have weeks, we have until sunrise if that much. According to my sources, the attack has already begun and that means that the next few hours will mean life or death for our planet. Nuclear weapons or any similar kind of device would do nothing but spread the monster's death power and any attack on our part would only give him reason to use his power sooner rather than later. All I can say now, is stay calm and stay in your homes. If worse comes to worst, then you'd best stay with your families and prepare for the end."

In the UN Base underneath Manhattan, the people there were momentarily dumbstruck at the news before Aso's barking set the fearfully back on task. Truth be told, however, Aso was yelling more to hide his fear than to motivate them. At that, everyone got to their battle stations and took their seats; as for their leader,  
Santos looked at the mammoth screen and grew serious; though he knew everyone there was the best at what they did and had gone over the plan a thousand times, that it was all going to come down to this.

"Thank you Mr. Martin. These are desperate times folks but its not over yet. We have once chance left and it is Godzilla. What are your comments on this Miss Segeusa?"

"My comments are these. For years, we've derided the kaiju as mere animals to be destroyed but over the course of the Monster Wars, we've seen that that's not true. Time and again, men and monsters have worked together to safeguard our planet which is the property of every living being, they've included Mothra, Battra, Sobek, King Kong, Anubis, Horus, Set, Apophis, Mechanstein, Uchihikra, Yetrigar, Tuol, Quetzacoatl, Lupis, Nessie, Inagos, and more. They've all fought bravely but none more so than their King. Godzilla was born in the time of the dinosaurs and he was a protector then; awakened in our time, he will be a protector now. He lost his world to King Ghidorah and won't let him win, not this time. Please, he's not going to hurt us, he's here to protect us and to save us all; no matter who or where you are, you must have faith because we have to believe in him. Believe in him so he can believe in you."

Soon, everyone was watching the scene, huddled around television sets. That's all they did, there were no riots, no looting, no people committing suicides, no throwing their money in the streets, or going on drinking binges. The whole world went deathly quiet as billions of people everywhere crowded ten, twenty at a time into their living rooms, barely able to breathe. Everywhere, they brought their families together to be with them and so that they too might know. Not only that, but so many millions called and e-mailed their loved ones telling them what was happening and to turn to the news that phones lines failed. They held hands and said their final prayers because on hearing what Segeusa said, they knew that their last hope for survival lay in a monster whom so many of them had spat on and despised for so many years.

"There you have it folks, straight from the woman who knows Godzilla… Ronnie, quick turn the camera over there! People do you see it! Godzilla's at the mouth of the East River! Good God this is it, it is happening right here, right now! Listen to me, the next few hours are going to decide the survival of Earth and this means you have a ringside seat for the battle of Armageddon! Good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, both sides are gambling everything they've got to win once and for all. No more teams, no more handicap matches, just these two because the Monster Wars all come down to this one final, ultimate battle. We'll live or we'll die, that's that. Now, Godzilla and King Ghidorah are going to fight for mastery of the world!"

Thus it was from one reporter on a building in the heart of New York, that so many saw in the waters between Manhattan's Financial Center and Brooklyn's Brooklyn Heights, a hundred meter long, undulating row of three jagged spines the color of tarnished silver ran through the surf before they submerged in a cloud of bubbles. With that the water began to froth and churn wildly; a long sinuous, serpentine tail cut past the surface of the water, casting spray as it did. The water seemed to rise up in a mammoth dome, higher and higher, before exploding and revealing the roaring King of the Monsters. With waters churned and frothing white in his wake, the monster strode towards his final enemy.

On the Brooklyn Bridge, where they were stationed, DFE troops ignored the wind and felt their jaws drop as the titan waded through black and red waters that stained his legs crimson. In fear and reverence, the enlisted men dared not speak as they saw the saurian giant thunder past the arched, stone towers and the mighty cables that held them and their guns and their tanks and maser cannons. Then all at once they began cheering wildly shouting "Go, Godzilla GO!" and "Get'm Godzilla!" for he would be their hero, he would be their champion. They were not alone as so many who saw this on their televisions cheered as well but the enlisted men on the Brooklyn Bridge were left behind and the colossus' foot crashed onto dry land, the stained water running in rivulets off his gnarled skin. Not breaking his stride Godzilla heaved himself onto the island city and walked past the towers of the financial district, his feet thundering on the pavement they cracked.

Each building in his way, crumbling or exploding as he blasted it or threw it or just crushed it with his bare hands, Godzilla surged forwards, baring his double row of teeth and throwing his head back to roar. Leaving a trail of devastation behind him, the King of the Monsters left house and park and street in ruins behind him but knew it was nothing compared to the ruin he would cast on his most hated enemy. He looked up to the Empire State Building and saw a black sphere made of death directly above it and that roiling clouds swirling around it. Walking past the buildings and upon the grid like streets he went to face the Prince of Skyllans, each step slow and deliberate as though a challenge.

From his perch atop Kong's building, King Ghidorah accepted each challenge and screeched his own. He screeched and raved and leapt from the tower, making stone and brick fall as he did, launching himself into the sky. Spinning into the black and red vortex above the city, the two hundred meter tall monster stopped a thousand feet above it, a hair's breadth from the black sphere and let its black lightning give him strength. Though less than a speck from the distance, he wrapped himself in his wings and crashed like a fallen star onto Broadway. The Earth shook and the ground exploded but when the dust cleared, the three-headed monster lunged forward to hiss his rage.

By that time, Godzilla was on the street as well and both stared each other down, giant buildings that rose over them on each side. All of a sudden, King Ghidorah spread his wings to the utmost and threw his head in all directions, maniacally casting his beams in all directions, destroying everything they touched. He cast every beam and fireball and shot of Crimson Lightning that he could with ever increasing ferocity and intensity even as the wind and the black lightning grew stronger as well. They went in every direction imaginable before stopping less than a meter before his feet; the energy beams stopped there and were no more.

Godzilla looked down and saw the torn, smoking ground at his feet. He looked around to the charred and broken buildings, mown down and smashed in half. The false attack had ceased and so had the wind and the lightning and all went completely silent. He turned his saurian gaze towards the enemy whose six dead soulless eyes gleamed red with hate; the King of the Monsters knew what this meant as his eyes narrowed and shone gold. This happened for he knew what this meant, it meant that they would fight without powers and without weapons. They would fight in the old way, the way of the dinosaur.

Watching all this from the flat rooftop on which they stood, were Miki Segeusa and her friends. They saw and did what they had to do; for Miki Segeusa this meant one thing. From her pocket, she pulled out the brittle old yellow photograph her grandfather gave her on his death bed. She had given it to him asking to never lose faith in the saurian that saved the life and of so many others long ago. She looked to the picture of Godzillasaurus and looked from it to Godzilla. As one tear rolled down her cheek, she felt a lump in her throat. "He'll fight for us once again. Our savior's come back to protect us!"

With that, one who would be Earth's savior and another who would be its damnation charged each other for the final battle had begun.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Twelve

The two monsters stared each other down for a time that seemed an eternity to all the billions who saw it. The King of the Monsters vs. the King of Terror, everyone had seen the power that the three-headed monster wielded and saw that at two hundred meters tall, was twice as tall as Godzilla. The Great Tyrannosaur's champion was up against a monster that dwarfed even him and against impossible odds but he was the only chance the world had left. The people watching all this in TV sat around their television sets and felt a silence as clear and as hard as diamond. They felt the silence… until it was shattered like glass into a trillion pieces when the monsters charged one another.

When Godzilla collided with his nemesis, his greater weight sent them both surging forwards until they crashed against a huge building. The building fairly exploded from the sheer force of the hit and buried them both; however, the saurian cleared the rubble and began delivering a flurry of claw strikes across the enemy's chest. Though on his back, King Ghidorah rallied his strength and he kicked Godzilla into the air where he went flying several hundred feet before he crashed halfway up into a tower. Relishing the sweet thrill of battle, the demon ran as fast as he could to intercept the fallen reptile but he was tail swept by the monster, silver spines cutting into golden flesh.

The Prince of Skyllans wailed at this and squeezed his six eyes shut and the hero took advantage of this getting up, grabbing his enemy. He heaved his foe upwards and leapt into the air executing an aerial roundhouse tail whip that cracked bones and bruised pseudo-flesh. All this and before it even fell to the ground, the saurian lowered his skull and charged, delivering a ram head blow as the demon fell. King Ghidorah was sent crashing against a one hundred story tall wall of concrete and prostrate was struck by a shop that Godzilla had torn up from the roots to throw at him. Thinking to press the assault, the last of the Supersaurs rushed to the rubble but the ensuing explosion sent him back.

Rocketing upwards, King Ghidorah took advantage of something he had that the saurian did not: flight. Though confined by the skyscrapers, he began a series of diving attacks slashing with his talons and tearing with his spiked clubs of his tail. Again and again, talon and spine struck home tearing open flesh and spilling blood; again and again, the Supersaur snapped his jaws and leapt as high as he could to strike but it was not enough. Enraged that he could not strike his enemy, Godzilla picked up a boulder sized piece of rubble into the sky at his hated foe.

However, it was of no use as King Ghidorah who hovered in the sky grabbed it with his talons and threw it back. Then, the oddest thing happened; as if playing a perverse game of pong, Godzilla caught it and threw it back! Even so, the three-headed monster anticipated it and—not wanting to play rock pong—shot up over the skyscrapers to dodge it. (The piece of rubble did however succeed in destroying Madison Square Garden where it crashed… and in starting a fire that soon had the whole Garment District ablaze.)

Seeing the advantage he had, King Ghidorah used the air to full advantage and death dived to deliver a flying kick but Godzilla saw it and ducked to the ground, with one hand to the asphalt turning beneath the foe to get behind and wrap a tail around each arm. Before the demon could react, the Great Tyrannosaur's champion was spinning him around in circles by his tails. With his tail stretched out behind him, faster and faster the circle went until Godzilla released the beast and sent him flying across and crashing through several buildings, before landing, sprawled, atop Radio City Music Hall. Godzilla charged forwards, crashing through Macy's, Gimbel's, Times Square, and anything else that got in his way headfirst, until he was in sight of his foe.

By that time the devil's hammer was on his feet and trembling with a rage beyond what even he could remember at such humiliation. Six eyes glowing red with hatred and wings crackling with electricity, three mouths shot out a barrage of Gravity Beams that destroyed all they touched before blasting a huge chunk of flesh from Godzilla's chest and sent him on his back. Ignoring the pain from a wound that would not heal, he got up and roared his fury at this; they had both understood, no powers! The demon had no honor!

As King Ghidorah furiously fired a volley of fireballs and a barrage of Crimson Lightning, it was made clear that he felt that honor should be saved for someone who cared!

Godzilla covered his face with his arms and returned fire with an Atomic Ray the first chance he had striking the evil one in the gut. It was followed by a barrage of close up claw strikes and punches; the favor was returned by wing rakes and hydra bites. When one of the needle teeth hit home and left Godzilla bleeding at the throat, Miki winced. She and her friends were easily watching all this from their building in Greenwich Village (the fight had already destroyed anything that might get in their line of sight) and had been so engrossed that they failed to notice anything else. Thus Miss Segeusa alone saw that when she touched her throat where she felt it her hand came away with blood even though there was no wound. …She was bleeding where Godzilla had been cut. She gasped as she saw this and when she did, Kyle turned around and saw it as well. He and Miki looked at the bloody hand and they locked gazes because they realized that for better or worse, they'd be there until the end.

The people of the world were watching this courtesy of Connie Matsu, the only people with a better view point were the people at the UN Head Quarters thanks to their flying camera drones. Not even the president had such a view since he had forbidden US forces from doing anything, though at the moment he wished he hadn't. At that moment he was at his Boston based White House III watching the battle of the gods on TV like everyone else. Being that he had gone out of his way to make New York his capital, he was fairly whimpering as landmark after landmark was destroyed as the two monsters waged a desperate running duel across the isle.

The battle having gone on for some time now, two monsters left the Theater District and from there had gone north to the West Side where they smashed flat several old theaters, opera houses, and universities before cutting through Central Park. Without any buildings to get in their way, the battle quickly reached such a fever pitch there that the forests and hills of the emerald green picture book park were razed straight to the schist bedrock in which Captain Santos and his team had Land MOGUERA dig in and hide. Soon enough, the emerald rectangle set in a grid of gray stone, was incinerated to black ash, though at one point, Emmerich could have sworn that he saw Godzilla pick up and use Cleopatra's Needle as a club. With the park left a firestorm, the battle broke through the northern end of the inferno into Harlem; soon enough the historic neighborhood was destroyed and the battle went south from there.

America's President and his Vice President were watching all this, keeping themselves informed as leaders should but they were able to do no more. Even if Emmerich hadn't withdrawn all forces, those forces wouldn't have been able to do anything more than wait as they were doing now. It reached a crescendo when a stray Triple Beam from Ghidorah shot through so many buildings to strike the base of the Twin Towers making them both fall and take down several buildings of the financial district with them. At that the self proclaimed most powerful man on Earth was able to do nothing but cry over his late White House II.

"My office," he sobbed. "I decorated my corner office in the north tower myself and now it's… gone!" Weeping he looked to his grim and stern Vice President and saw he was unmoved. Emmerich's mind barely registered when he heard the ring of his cell-phone; pulling it out of his coat, he said, "I'm here."

"Yeah… yeah… what…! I understand…" After listening to the words, he let the phone fall from his fingers. He then fell back to his chair and trembled like a little boy scared that the under bed monsters would get him. "Frank, I don't get it. First the house I grew up in is destroyed by a wildfire, then my old company's headquarters is destroyed by an earthquake, and now I get a phone call that says my Texas ranch was flattened by a tidal wave… not to mention that that three-headed monster has now destroyed the White House… twice!"

"Its not fair," the man whimpered with quivering lips. "Why should natural disasters happen more to me than to anyone else… It's not fair."

On hearing those words, Franklin Smith, the Vice President of the United States could take no more and he got up from his seat. He looked down to the pathetic, whining hunched forward wreck that he called master with disgust and cursed himself for ever kneeling to him. He looked down and said, "The world is getting its revenge."

On hearing that, Devlin Emmerich was roused from his stupor by confusion; he looked towards his right hand man not understanding what he meant. "What? I don't get it… Frank, have you really gone crazy?"

Fists clenching and unclenching, Smith fought the urge to hit the man across the face. "No, I'm not crazy," he hissed. "You're the only one here who's crazy!"

Unwilling to believe what he heard, the President just stood there unmoving and silent for a time before it finally registered. "You called me… that's it Frank… y-you're fired." He shot his hand towards the door and yelled, "GET OUT!"

Stopped by his master's arm, Smith got on Emmerich's face and said, "Oh, you don't have to ask me to leave! Everything you have will be destroyed and you know why? It's because all you've ever done is disgrace the world and now its getting its revenge!" With that he shoved the arm out of the way and stormed out of the room angrily slamming the door behind him.

Now alone in room, Emmerich just stared off into space and stood in silence for a time before whipping around to face his enemies, real and imagined. "The world, eh?" He looked up and spat. "So world, Earth, Nature, Fate, Karma, God… you want your revenge? Fine with me, I don't care!"

His energy spent, he fell to the floor on his hands and knees and drunkenly mumbled, "… I don't care…"

Openly bawling, he curled up into a ball and cried, "… I don't care…!"

In Harlem, the black neighborhood was burned black by various energy beams and amidst the firestorm, the battle was unabated for as if they were demons at the gates of Hell, Godzilla and King Ghidorah, made war against one another within an inferno destroying Apollo Theater and so much more. The last Supersaur rallied all his strength delivered a claw swipe that left three ugly gashes across a golden chest. Followed by another equally savage swipe that tore open the chest and a punch that staggered the enemy, he grabbed golden wings delivered a head but that almost broke the base of the middle neck. Godzilla lunged forwards to deliver a crippling bite to the enemy's wings but the Prince of Skyllans kicked the saurian in the gut, knocking the wind from him and delivered a round house tail whip tearing open flesh all the way to the bone with twin spiked clubs.

As gore splattered everywhere Godzilla roared in pain and anger, but his was the strength of anger and loosed a Red Spiral Ray so powerful that it blasted a hole straight through the right wing, acid blood showering the land and burning the saurian. Fueled by sheer rage, King Ghidorah lashed with his heads to batter his enemy, leaving bruise and gash to tear open his face. However that was not enough and the Star of Doom delivered a flurry of bites from all three heads, hundreds of needle teeth injecting venom laced with their user's malice and cruelty.

It seemed that such an attack would stagger even Godzilla but he did not weaken and delivered a double hammer strike struck at the demon's wings. He stepped back a distance and then ran at full speed, thereupon delivering a flying kick with both legs, his tail dragging behind him. It struck the enemy and it left him on his knees; injured and unwilling to believe what had happened, the King of Terror was in further disbelief as he saw the saurian wounds close themselves. As they battled southwards out of Harlem, the fight continued in intensity but the confusion increased as well for the demon. What had happened was impossible, beneath the death sphere above the city, it had been happening all through the battle but neither of their regenerative powers should work! It was in this state of confusion that, in El Barrio, or Spanish Harlem, Godzilla fired his Atomic Ray, slamming Ghidorah through the buildings of Lexington Avenue and all the way to twenty feet deep into the pavement of Second Avenue. The two beasts continued to battle sending pieces of rubble flying, even as the destruction and the fire kept spreading.

The three-headed monster did not know what happened and neither did Kyle; confused, he turned towards Miki to ask. "Miki did you see what hap-" he gasped. He saw that Miki was on trembling on her knees and saw that she was she was cut all over her face and that her arms were purple. The din of battle filling the air, he rushed to her and said, "Miki what happened to you?"

As he helped her to her wobbly feet, she coughed and a trickle of blood came from her lips. "Godzilla was going to fall… I gave him my strength and I took his pain."

"What the-what do you mean!" Appalled, he said, "You can't do this… you'll get killed."

Now more steady, Miki shook her head. "We don't have a choice Kyle, this is bigger than both of us."

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "You have to stop this! Dammit, why do you share that freak's suffering?"

Tears freely streaming from her grimy, tired face she shot a look and retorted, "He needs me! He needs my strength to keep fighting for all of us!"

"Miki I don't believe what you're say-" The whole building trembled as if in an earthquake from a stray elephant sized piece of rubble that was sent flying across the island from the monster's battle. The piece of rubble hit and the damage caused was so great that the ground gave way beneath Kyle and Miki's feet, leaving dust thicker than Skull Island fog to fly everywhere. Rubble and rock cutting and scraping her all the while the psychic desperately managed to scramble back to the broken ledge, clinging for dear life with her injured right hand and holding onto something else with the other.

On seeing that, Matsu broke off her reporting and Brown left the still running camera on the wide ledge and the shaken pair rushed to Segeusa's aid. The two grabbed her by her right arm and Connie said, "Miki give us your other arm!"

"I can't, not with Kyle!"

Ronnie looked past her and saw that she was holding onto Kyle Martin with her left hand as he dangled above a several story drop. He yelled, "My God!" but the words he would have follow it were said by another.

"Miki what are you doing!"

Barely holding onto him by his wrist she looked down to the man and angrily yelled, "What do you think I'm doing, I'm saving you! Now give me your other hand!"

Matsu said, "Listen to the lady, we can pull you up."

Seeing Miki slip from Ronnie and Connie's grip due to their combined weight, Kyle said, "You got to let me go or else you'll fall!"

Trembling and straining, Miki felt herself begin to slip but she would not yield, so strong was her love. "Then we'll both die, but I won't let you go!"

With that, a sad and haunted look came across Martin's face as he saw Ronnie and Connie struggling to keep them both up. He heard their shoes scrape against the dust and gravel and saw Miki's hand slip further and further from their grasps and knew that his weight would very soon take her down with him. "Then I guess there's only one thing left to do. Sorry baby." With that, he twisted out of her grasp and fell and the dusty haze below.

"KYLE!" Miki screamed as she reached for his falling form. Then without thought and without reason she used a psychic burst to send the reporters flying back and herself shooting down. Scraped and grimy, Ronnie and Connie got up and rushed to the side but they were already too late. Sick and guilty that she hadn't been able to do more, Matsu fell to her hands and knees and tried to fight back tears as she looked to the cloud of smoke and dust that surrounded the building. She tried to fight back her tears and she failed.

However, as she looked at the sooty haze, she saw that it was beginning to swirl and twist. She shook her head and said, "No… no way…" But it was indeed so as the psychic rose up transfigured from the world below, covered in a shimmering aura of golden light. With head tilted back and eyes closed, her arms were outstretched as she focused her power; rallying that energy, she levitated herself upwards and her love. With Kyle curled into a little ball, they both came to rest on the building though when foot touched ground the would be goddess would have fallen on her face if Connie didn't steady her.

Dizzy and gasping for breath, Miki looked to Connie and smiled before looking to Kyle and saying, "I said I wouldn't let you go."

Thoroughly shaken, Kyle Martin looked to her and asked, "What did you do, what happened?"

"Telekinesis." The trembling psychic wiped away the bloody nose that came as a result of the exertion and flashed an impish smirk as she shrugged. "I just never tried it on something so big before."

Her boyfriend rolled his eyes and got up. "You really are amazing, you know that?"

On turning to see that Ronnie and Connie were back to filming and reporting, Miki said, "C'mon, we still have plenty to do." With that, Segeusa limped off with Kyle's help and went back to see the battle.

And indeed the battle was on. Miki had chosen the building because she had seen the very immediate future and had seen that it was one of the very few buildings that would not be destroyed. That was not to say it was safe, far from it; it was in fact only the least dangerous, which was no guarantee that the people on it would survive. Proof of that was seen in how around much of the island there was smoke and fire and danger and all around the island there were heard the roars of a battle so great that the very Earth trembled. Yet for a moment, the battle was stilled and the Earth was unshaken.

Beneath Central Park, were some of the only men left on Manhattan. In the cockpit, Captain Santos looked to the main screen and saw that Land MOGUERA was nestled deep in supposedly unbreakable bedrock. Smiling at how easily the tank had been able to do in escaping from the battle, he smiled and said, "Yoshizawa knows how to build them."

Glen turned around from his gunner's seat. "What was that, sir?"

"Nothing soldier," he said as he began pounding the keys to get a visual back on the screen. As the imaging devices went back on line, a three dimensional image of bedrock, buildings, and asphalt appeared in line drawings as if it were an image of ship and sand in water. (And, from all the ruined foundations, they also saw how many skyscrapers had been toppled…) On seeing they were too deep in solid stone to get a message out, the man said, "Fuji, get us up to the surface."

"Sir, yes sir." Moving it like a fish in water or a bird through air, the monster tank's incredibly hard drill—harder than diamond—cut through the stone with minimal difficulty. Though they all felt that their teeth would shake out, they made it to the surface soon enough, and on hitting the surface Santos opened the solid metal shutters that covered the windows. However, they were unprepared for what they saw. They came up through the mud and silt of Turtle Pond and then the muddy Land MOGUERA rumbled past the remains of Belvedere Castle. As the vehicle rumbled along on its treads to a stop, they saw Central Park was in flames and every tree and building was reduced to a morass of ash, mud, and rubble. As for the buildings surrounding the park fared no better because there were no buildings! Though he knew the city was expendable and he knew that he had to stay out of the Supersaur's way, he cursed himself for not being able to attack King Ghidorah and make him pay.

Wanting to what little he could, Santos checked all scanners and saw that the two monsters were no longer there. Wanting to know where they were, he got on the communicator and patched through to Gryphon. "Tsujimori, this is Captain Santos. Do you read me, over?"

"We read you, loud and clear, over."

"We've just come up from underground and Godzilla's not here. Where're the monsters?"

Looking out from her canard winged plane as it flew over the Upper East Side she caught sight of the saurian. The woman said, "I see him about a mile northeast of you."

In the Upper East Side as Tsujimori had said, Godzilla was walking through the Manhattan neighborhood of Yorkville. He towered over the cramped apartments that dominated the area and had a good view of the once German speaking area but as he tilted his head back to scent the air, he couldn't smell anything. The demon had flown away from the king's sight but he knew that the unholy beast had not fled; the Star of Doom was near and would be destroyed! Such fury had been so ever since Godzilla had arrived and smelt Kong's stink all over Ghidorah from his having been the Empire State Building. It added his sick rage towards Kong towards that he had of the demon; it was greater than ever with how the ape had saved his life at the start of the Monster Wars, oh he'd kill the ape for that! For now, however, the saurian kept walking down East 94th street, near the river, his ears and eyes looking for anything to tell him where the enemy was.

Then all of a sudden, he felt the lancing pain of something stab him through the back as he was heaved upwards and heard the lunatic cry of electronic warble. Crying in indignation as he writhed like a fish on a hook and was hauled well thousands of feet into the air, though the demon straining his strength to the utmost. Godzilla furiously swiped back and tried to reach Ghidorah yet it was not enough and the fiend lunged both heads forwards to impale needle teeth on the jelly of his foe's eyes and slam the twin club tails into his throat, poisonous spikes leaving ugly wounds. Scarlet staining and a roar tearing the sky, the King of the Monsters exerted all his strength and loosed an Atomic Shockwave that blasted the three-headed monster off from him. Screaming at the burns and the paint that covered him, Ghidorah released his enemy as he was thrown back but he felt himself pulled downwards as a black scaled hand grasped his ankle.

From thousands of feet up and so high that the five boroughs and beyond looked like a postage stamp, the two monsters fell downwards like shooting stars. King Ghidorah tried to break from Godzilla's grip but, though near blind and in agony, he broke the wicked one's ankle and loosed a Red Spiral Ray to blast the wing shoulder joint to bloody pieces leaving both to spiral down in freefall. At the speeds they were going, when they finally crashed into the darkened waters below, they fit it as if it were a solid wall. For a time, there was no movement save the normal roiling waters of Hell Gate where the two monsters fell. Then, as if they were the heads of Scylla coming from out the Greek surf, three demonic heads burst from the darkened night waters atop three twisting serpentine necks and seemingly gasped for breath. Forcing his aching wings beyond what they could in the mad twisting waters, King Ghidorah tried to escape from his enemy's domain as a whirlpool began to spin around him. However, the demon's struggles in the whirlpool were of no use when the scaly black hand of Charybdis grasped the middle neck in a choking movement from behind and pulled him back in.

With harsh salt and cold water lashing at his wounds even as the air shot out in bubbles from his enemy's throat, the demon was dragged under. Now they were in Godzilla's territory not Ghidorah's and the King of the Monsters intended to make full use of it. Blind in the lightless waters, the mad one felt the salt burn his gaping oozing wound and saw a red light in the darkness and screamed without sound as he felt an agony lance through his torn, gory shoulder. Boiled alive as the scalding water bubbled around him, he screamed again as the same light came and the same pain strike him through the chest. In this state, he had naught but the slightest warning as an enormous black shape rushed towards him and struck head on.

The three-headed monster felt his internal organs begin to rupture at the battering and felt his thigh sliced by the spines of a tail whip. He seemed in dire straights but though he was nearly blind, Ghidorah could see without sight just as his enemy could and tracked his foe through the waters by radiation. Tracking his foe, he fired a Triple Beam through the water but it was not enough and Godzilla effortlessly dodged it in the murky waters between Wards Island and Queens. Thinking to use a scatter shot attack, King Ghidorah loosed a surge of electrical energy through his skin; amplified by the water, it hit everything, including Godzilla.

Weak against electricity, Godzilla spasmed in agony as the voltage lanced through him. Drawing strength from the sweet agony, the evil one concentrated his power as he used his wings to fly through the water to strike at the helpless foe. Though the fluid slowed him, he raked with his wings and delivered bite after bite, the Taint leaving each wound poisoned; at this it was seen the though the wounds healed they were healing at a far slower rate. Even so, Godzilla pushed through the pain and wheeled back in the black water to tear at King Ghidorah's belly with his bare teeth.

The demon lurched in the water and placed his legs on the saurian's belly, pushing him away and tearing from himself the piece of pseudo-flesh that the saurian held in his teeth, yellow blood poisoning the water around him in a yellow cloud. The acid cloud enveloped everything and that included Godzilla, leaving him burned and blind. Taking advantage of that, King Ghidorah used reversed Gravity Beams so send him shooting out of the water like a rocket. Exploding out of the water and his body exploding in agony, the nearly insensate Champion of the Great Tyrannosaur went flying until he crashed in west Queens and made the ground quake so that tsunami waves washed ashore on Ward's Island.

With eyes and skin burning from the poison, Godzilla propped himself on an elbow and began vomiting a mixture of water and blood. With massive chest heaving and water sheeting from his colossal frame, he ignored the grass and trees that was his surroundings and looked around to see where the enemy lay. He looked around and on turning southeast, he saw that the freak had not followed up his attack but was instead marshalling his strength for a renewed attack. The evil one was on the Queensboro Bridge, making the structure tremble and sway crack under weight it was never meant to bare.

What the saurian saw was that the demon was crossing Roosevelt Island and trying to get to cover offered by the buildings of Manhattan. Then, more out of spite than anything else, Godzilla blasted the bridge with his Atomic Ray and sent the bridge crumbling beneath the Ghidorah and sending the beast tumbling into the waters below. With that, the King of the Monsters, though burned and bloody and raw all over, ran as fast as he could and charged the river. At the edge, he finally executed a colossal flying leap that seemed to last forever as a never-ending stream of flesh was sent into the black water below to hunt for his prey.

Washing up from the East River at FDR Drive and surrounded by ruined falling buildings and a raging inferno, King Ghidorah was mortally injured. Far less graceful on the ground than he would ever be on the sky, he had trouble just getting up and the yellow blood that spilled from his wounds made the broken asphalt sizzle and burn. He drew strength from his anger because in facing his enemies, it was with his hatred that destroyed them but now it was to finally drive him to madness.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Thirteen

From his chair Secretary General Santos, he looked over the heads of Aso, Goodhue and Hayashida and saw the image on the mammoth screen but saw neither monster. Seeing the image change from a moving picture of the remaining towers of the financial district to red and hellish firestorm that had once been Central Park, he was getting worried. He knew that Aso had already placed UN Forces on red alert and had told the field officers to strike if necessary and he knew that if Godzilla didn't win son that that time might well be soon. Slamming his fist on the hand rest. He yelled, "Well what are you all waiting for? Get more camera drones looking for those monsters!"

Looking to the man seated behind him, Aso chafed and said, "Right away, sir." After repeating those orders to his men, scores of the flying eyes in the sky all concentrated on the last sightings of the two kaiju: the waters around Astoria, Queens, for Godzilla and the Manhattan side of Queensboro bridge for Ghidorah. As the flying eyes sped across the flaming rubble of the evil one, they men saw the UN Building on the screen and saw the hover jet propelled box sized camera drones take pictures of another each other, so many swarmed into the area. Soon enough the machines found the prostrate King Ghidorah and flew in a holding pattern over his prostrate body. However, that was when the evil one rose to his hind legs and shone gold even as his eyes gleamed blood red.

With broken legs and bloody wings screamed his evil cry and destroyed many of the flying cameras with a scatter shot of Crimson Lightning, leaving the UN people to gasp as the screen turned to static. The people watching this around the world felt their stomach turn in knots as they saw this and felt that something bad was going to happen. They knew it when Connie reported to them that Godzilla whom she saw coming out of the waters of the Manhattan bank of the West Channel pause as he saw the three-headed monster within spitting distance of him.

Even so he fired a Red Spiral Ray as Ghidorah fired a Triple Beam, the two locking against each other as each vied for dominance. The locked rays increased in fury as pulse after pulse of energy shot out but it ended when the demon's beam burst through in an explosion that sent Godzilla staggering backwards. The King of the Monsters saw the power that the evil one was bringing to bare and couldn't believe it. All over the three-headed monster's body, wounds were reopening and welts grew uglier; underneath the death sphere, Ghidorah was killing himself using that much power! He'd die!

The devil's hammer knew that and cocked his three heads; then they'd both die! Proving that, he increased the assault and charged, shooting fireballs to make his enemy fall. Feeling his skin blister and peel as the pounding continued, saurian retaliated and leapt towards the enemy and dealt a bone crushing kick to the right neck. His charge stopped and in pain, the demon fell back and felt his spine nearly snapped but he was dead to the pain and his outer necks shot forwards to head but Godzilla even as his middle neck slammed its fangs on the dinosaur's throat.

In the back of his mind, even as he was fighting with every ounce of strength, Godzilla realized something: King Ghidorah had finally gone insane. With wounds opening on the demon's body by their own accord, it was plain that the Prince of Skyllans was willing to commit suicide just to settle a petty grudge. As his black and swollen eyes narrowed, Godzilla steeled himself to the fact that this now meant that he would not only be fighting for Earth but also for his very life.

In the UN bunker which seemed to be trembling, people were trying to get the remaining camera drones to the battle sight and stay on top of things, but it was hard going. Infuriated that the ultimate battle was being waged less than a mile from them and that they were essentially blind, Santos was caught unprepared when a communications man shot up from his station and said, "Mr. Santos, your son has reported in from beneath Central Park! He said that the two monsters are passing directly over us!"

"What!" Santos got up from his seat as plaster began falling from the twenty foot high ceiling and the lights began sputtering on and off. Having spoken of the devil, the trembling that had been felt earlier began to grow tremendously and until the whole base shook as in a 9.0 earthquake. Steeling themselves against rising fear, the people frantically braced themselves but they began falling to the ground and their computer terminals began faltering as the two monsters waged war above them. Soon enough however, the computers were back on line and the camera drone coordinator had the big screen showing the scene again. However, it was not an image that any of them, especially Santos, liked.

As for the hideous beasts, they were fighting in front of the black, towering Secretariat Building even as General Assembly and the Hammerskjold Library to the left and right were stamped flat by feet and tails. After an especially fierce kick, Godzilla landed on his side, his mammoth head crashing down and making an earthquake, mere feet from the tiny flags of the member nations and sending the toothpick like flagpoles flying. The immense pain from all his bruises and hideous wounds making his enemy pause for a second, King Ghidorah had time to erect a shield around himself and the Atomic Ray glanced off and struck black Secretariat, making it fall straight on the Conference Building and the rubble into East River.

In the UN Bunker beneath this, Secretary General Santos got up from his chair and raised his fist to the image of Ghidorah on the screen. "Damn you ugly monster, that was my capitol building!"

Oblivious to the man's curses, the two monsters continued their fight. To alter his strategy and confuse the mad monster, Godzilla tore a large house from its foundations and threw it with all his might. Shielding himself with his wings and bracing himself with feet and tails, King Ghidorah took the blow and ignored the raw, peeling flesh that hung in tatters. Red eyes gleaming and tattered flesh growing necrotic, he returned the strike with a vicious Gravity Beam; unable to dodge, Godzilla lowered his head and raised his arms to block the pain.

But he felt no pain. There was no hideous increase in weight and no explosion of flesh, there was nothing of the sort, only a odd weightless feeling. Not letting his guard down, the last of the Supersaurs, opened his eyes and looked about to see that he was in the air again! Using reverse polarity Gravity Beams from his outer heads, King Ghidorah had levitated the monster, leaving him helpless; he had also quite cleverly used his middle head's beam to clamp Godzilla's jaw shut.

On seeing that, Commander Aso clenched his fist and yelled into the microphone. "This is it so c'mon, what are you waiting for!"

So possessed by hate that he preferred to die than let his enemy live, the villain used his powers to throw the hero high into the air and with that made his torn and bleeding wings crackling with electricity to charge and to fire. All of a sudden, a relentless barrage of particle beams, missiles, and bullets rained down on him; with concentration lost, he dropped Godzilla. With the reversed Gravity Beams gone, Godzilla crashed down to the broken rubble and made the island shake; it was a time before he got up. On his back and with his spines bent, his chest heaved and his bloody mouth gasped for breath but he heard explosions and the wretched scream of sin incarnate. With broken bones and bruises and welts, he forced himself through the pain and saw it but couldn't believe it.

The Gryphon and a swarm of attacking laser jets were continuously raining hell on King Ghidorah as they rocketed towards him from all directions. Then a mere thirty feet away from the demon and before he could short circuit their electronics, they executed an impossible Blue Angels 90º turn directly upwards. Not letting up for the second he'd need to get on his feet, fighter planes shot over New York City and launched missile after missile against the demon. Just as he was crouching to leap into the air and destroy his attackers on their own ground, he felt armor piercing depleted uranium tipped missiles hit his legs. He would normally have been able to withstand such an attack but in his weakened state, the flesh was blasted from his body. On falling to his back on the ground, three heads snaked this way and that and saw that an armada of destroyers and battleships was surrounding the island… and that a barrage of missiles shot from those were arcing straight down at him!

Watching the weapons the humans rained down against his enemy strike their target, Godzilla was dumbstruck as if asking himself, they were helping him?

As missile after missile was slammed down at him like punch after punch, tanks and maser tanks rumbled out from across the remaining bridges and through new tunnels that Land MOGUERA had drilled into the soil to shoot with everything they had. Not only that but gigantic super tank Land MOGUERA was leading the charge with lasers blazing! In the cockpit, Santos told all tank crews, "C'mon we have to keep King Ghidorah busy until Godzilla gets back on his feet!"

Following their commander's orders even though their own vehicles were pathetically dwarfed, they intensified their fire even further. With a cover fire of shells, laser beams, and machine gun bullets shielding them, the fury of the attack grew even greater when Santos and crew engaged their vehicle's rocket boosters and forward drill. Dodging rubble mountains on their tanks treads, they races forwards until the spinning drill hit the target's legs. Though left with bloody ears at the King Ghidorah's cries, Captain Santos called the dance, having Fuji make the burning tank treads go with everything they had even as he had Glen make the shaking drill spin for all it was worth thus sending bloody acid chunks from the squealing target everywhere.

Santos kept it up even as the cockpit was showered with sparks but it wasn't enough as King Ghidorah stomped his feet atop the tank and held it tight and tore his other foot away. Driven to lunacy and madness, he felt the agony and whipped his head forwards throwing fireballs at random. Some tank crews were stunned by this and were made to stop; knowing he would have his vengeance, the three-headed monster shone gold and raised his good leg to crush the tank like a tin can. That was when a black fist sent him stumbling back across the flaming rubble.

Back on his broken feet, the bloodied Godzilla struck with all his strength at the enemy that towered over him with claw strike after claw strike. Lunging forward with a tearing bite even as he followed it up with a right hook so strong to the demon's stomach that it was lifted fifty feet from the broken asphalt, Godzilla looked away to the humans. Roaring at them, he motioned with his head to get away; when they wouldn't move he roared louder rammed Ghidorah with a tackle.

Watching the King of the Monsters, the humans in the tanks and other vehicles were unmoving in confusion. They were dumbstruck as they asked themselves, "He's helping us?"

Not wanting to lose the saurian's offer, the tank men accepted that their mission was done and rumbled off even as the planes flew away. They had stood at his side, and for that Godzilla wouldn't let them die, not them or anybody else on their planet! Surrounded by a sea of fire and battling his arch-enemy amidst mountains of broken rubble, Godzilla struck. Seemingly on the defensive, King Ghidorah leapt to the side and to the back; however, it was merely to get room for a most heinous attack.

Stretching his mammoth, bat-like wings to the fullest, he beat them forwards, sending a hurricane blast at Godzilla. With gale force winds threatening to knock him back, the King of the Monsters was staggered and had to use his tail to keep up; as the winds sent ton after ton of rubble crashing against him it became even harder. Having anchored himself with increased gravity, the three-headed monster beat harder, his wings raising clouds and clouds of dust. With the cover up, he initiated his real attack.

Surrounded by a swirling, blindingly thick cloud of dust and hearing a strange whistling sound, Godzilla; coated with a dry, thick layer of grime; braced himself for anything. He then felt a sudden stabbing, lancing, pain tear through his shoulder, leaving him to roar his pain and fury and Miki grit her teeth and clutched a shoulder that bled without a wound. The King of the Monsters looked to his right shoulder and saw a bloody, gore dripping hole in which splinters of bone showed and that went all the way through; his entire upper arm and shoulder was stained red. Built as strongly as he was, he could still use his arm—despite the burning agony—but as he raised his head to look around, he could only ask what happened.

As the dust began to clear, he could see what happened. There was King Ghidorah standing on broken asphalt and from his three heads that moved serpentine like those of the Hydra there came lightning like beams that pulsed ever so slowly. Those Gravity Beams were of a reversed polarity so that they levitated an object rather than make it explode under an augmented weight and the things levitated were the steel girders. Scores of them, perhaps hundreds of them they were had once held up the scores of now fallen skyscrapers like the bones of a metallic skeletons, were levitated around King Ghidorah like an iron halo. Knowing what was to happen, Godzilla launched a first strike with a Red Spiral Ray but the wicked one had foreseen this and had already raised a protective shield so that the Ray merely glanced off. With that, King Ghidorah sent his weapons forwards.

Scores and scores of steel girders shot like bullets from a Minigun and they cut and tore endlessly through their target, more and more through shoulder and chest and belly and throat. If his mind were capable of it, Godzilla might have gone on to pity his simian arch-rival for now having some idea of what it was like to be machine gunned to death—and in the same city—but with the blood red screaming agony, he couldn't think of anything at all. With each one making a sick splat as it pierced his flesh, his body was torn to bloody ribbons as the steel kept shooting through him, faster and fiercer, scores at a time. As the sadistic attack continued, enormous gory holes revealing ruptured organs and shattered bones kept growing bigger and more numerous by the second. Every inch of his body bloody, the King of the Monsters screamed in agony at pain then grit his teeth unfelt since the Oxygen Destroyer and futilely raised arms that were quickly scraped to the bone in defense.

The millions of frightened, cowering people watching this on the news couldn't believe it. Godzilla was supposed to be their hero, their chosen one… he was the savior, he couldn't lose! Everywhere, people were saying, get up Godzilla, don't give up! They were not the only ones; once again planes and tanks came in to save their comrade in arms though this time not so much out of necessity. It was because they, Captain Santos and Fujimori and the rest, had come to call he who shed his blood alongside him brother. To save their brother they fired missiles, bullets, shells, laser guns, and everything they had, leaving the injured demon whose skin hung in tatters a column of fire. This time, however, King Ghidorah was ready.

Not relenting in his assault of the enemy as his outer heads rained iron death and mad with hate, the three-headed monster spared his middle head to turn around. Fueled by his rage, he spat out his Gravity beams even as he strained his aching wings to shoot Crimson Lightning. Soon enough plane and tank and ship by the dozen exploded and their crews killed; Godzilla saw this and screamed in fury that his comrades in arms were dying. Regardless, their suicidal attack continued even as the Gryphon crashed in the Bronx and as Land MOGUERA was damaged beyond repair and was sent flying through the air and landed on its side like a child's toy, until it was made clear that their efforts to help the King of the Monsters was too little, too late.

With the insects dead, the King of Terror resumed his steel beam attack, making girder after girder shoot though their target. It kept going and going until a being of weaker will would have felt the agony to be a hellish eternity but Godzilla grit his teeth until his gums bled from his double row of fangs. Even at full strength and with his healing power it would have been torture but in his weakened state and without healing, it was sheer murder. Steel girders by the dozens were breaking through him and they kept growing worse until the attack was broken off when three fireballs struck the last of the Supersaurs at once. Trembling and on his last legs, the crippled and eviscerated Godzilla used his last drop of strength to brace himself on the smoking, ruined broken bottom half of a tall building.

After vomiting blood and frothing at the mouth, the black saurian placed his trembling hand to a heaving chest that had been gruesomely torn open all the way to the bone and he brought the hand to his face. When he looked to it was completely coated in sick, slimy crimson, ground, pulpy meat oozing from ragged tattered holes all over his body. And not only was his entire body from his throat to his waist was stained with blood, but his chest and belly were covered with burns and blisters where the fireballs had struck. Leaning against the broken building and fighting just to stay conscious, Godzilla looked himself over and brought his bloody, gore dripping hand and began trembling as if to ask himself, what was it that kept him fighting? Why couldn't he stop?

Looking back and forth between a camera that shook ever so lightly due to its cameraman and to the horrific scene at hand, a frightened Connie Matsu reported this with a trembling voice. Off camera, however, Kyle Martin gasped at this and whispered, "Godzilla…"

With blood pouring from non existent wounds, Miki Segeusa tears streamed from her face as she saw this and screamed, "GODZILLA!"

The reporter caught a quick glimpse of the two as they raced out of door leading to the lower floors of the building. Though casting an eye on them, Mastu didn't skip a beat on her assignment; her face instead staying glued to the camera lens as she kept reporting. She didn't have to ask her friends where they were going; she knew where it was.

As for Godzilla himself, he was bloodied and broken but unbowed and was determined that he would have either victory or death. Refusing to give in, refusing to give his most hated enemy the victory he so wanted, he lowered his head and body and attacked King Ghidorah in a final Banzai charge. Surrounded by fires that lit the blackest of nights and his mammoth feet crunching broken rubble beneath him, he hurled himself towards the unmoving demon, blood and gore streaming from him. The Prince of Skyllans was unmoving as Godzilla raced towards him, unmoving and glowing, until he leapt—or levitated—into the air to deliver a roundhouse strike with spiked tail and taloned foot and spiked wing crushing bone and splitting skin.

Torn, leprous skin hanging in grotesque folds from a now bony chest, and King Ghidorah dealt wing strike after wing strike. He lunged his right head to bite his enemy, then his left, then his middle before head butting with his outer heads as the center screamed. Lashing to the left and right, each sinuous neck kept smashing back and forth beating Godzilla further. Blood splattering over the both of them and each drop falling like red tears, it was as if King Ghidorah screamed, Enough! What sport can there be in so pathetic an opponent… so please DISSAPEAR FROM MY SIGHT!

And it was with that that a Star of Doom that shone as brightly as Lucifer threw all three heads back then threw them forwards, executing the most powerful Triple Beam Creation had yet seen him cast and sending it straight through what was left of Godzilla's chest.

It was a moment that nobody would ever forget. Looking to the images the camera drones sent to the screen in the damaged UN Base underneath Manhattan, Secretary General Santos slowly shook his head in disbelief. Not only he but all those around him, from Director Goodhue to the lowliest clerk, even to Aso himself went silent and took off their hats. Some were openly crying.

They weren't the only ones and thanks to Matsu's live report, people around the world were on hand to watch. They were watching and saw Godzilla charging when all of a sudden what looked like a mammoth bolt of lightning lanced straight through the charging beast and keep going until it smashed against the broken remains of a skyscraper. For all the people who saw this, time itself seemed to slow a crawl. Everything seemed to stop as the Great Tyrannosaur's champion froze in his thrown back position until slowly, ever so slowly, he fell to the ground and made all New York City tremble. The ground trembled and so did all who saw it as hearts were broken and hope was shattered. All the while they'd come to look at Godzilla as their last best hope through the Monster Wars and the drum roll Segeusa gave him only heightened the idea that the last Supersaur was to be their savior. Now, the savior was dead.

As for Segeusa herself, she and Kyle had gotten to the abandoned car that they and Connie Matsu had used to get the building in Greenwich Village and raced to the scene. As they desperately raced there dodging, mountains of rubble, raging fires, twisted metal hulks that had been military vehicles, blindingly thick smoke, and destroyed buildings that were collapsing around them, Miki could hear his mighty heart beating slower and slower. Ba-bump, ba-bump… ba-bump… ba…bump… Feeling sick and nauseous, Miki gripped the dashboard so hard that her knuckles turned white and prayed that it would not be as she feared but when she and Kyle arrived, they saw they were too late.

Arriving in Stuyvesant town where the hero lay, they saw his titanic bulk peacefully laid amongst tall angled apartment buildings and peaceful tree-lined walkways. The car stopped amidst the rubble and the pair got out, walking through the ankle deep blood that flooded the whole area as far as they could see. When Kyle and Miki saw Godzilla eviscerated, with his stomach torn open and his gory chest blasted to the bone, pulpy flesh like ground meat and splinters of bone coming from so many gaping holes, they understood why there was so much blood.

Kyle looked at he had once been his most despised enemy and in some ways still was, stopped to weakly whisper, "No… Godzilla never looses, Godzilla never goes down…" Angry at the monster for making him feel so, he was torn up inside by mixture of love and hate; remembering how it had been hatred that had driven him on for so long, he cursed. "No… Get up you ugly bastard, you can't give up now!" Not when you're the reason I've lasted so long, not when I still have a score to settle with you, not when my hatred for you is the reason I'm still alive.

As for the other member of the party, she was there though in a far more distraught position. For some time, Miki, now at full health, had been giving the King of the Monsters all her strength so that he might win and feeling his pain as her own as the price. Driving there, she had been gasping for breath, crying blood, and worse but as she had gotten closer, the pain had lessened until it was no more. She now saw that she had not been able to feel his pain because the link was broken. Trembling and weeping, she slowly walked through the slick blood that stained her legs red to keep from slipping on broken asphalt towards Godzilla and looked at him even as he saw her.

On his broken back, the saurian's weakened eyes looked to see his beloved innocent place her hands against a hand so huge that it dwarfed her. All of a sudden her knees failed her and she fell to the ground, covering her face as she cried hysterically. She looked to the creature to whom she owed her life and had been her friend, even when nobody else would and cried out, "STAY ALIVE!"

Each ragged breath growing more and more labored, he wondered, she would cry for him? She would cry for an old sinner like himself?

Sobbing, she put her hand to his black scaled flesh and said, "Yes! You know I would cry for you…"

Were he able to, he would cry as well because she would not be where he would soon go. As his breath slowed and as heartbeat kept slowing, he only thought to her that he was so sorry. Once again, the world had needed him and once again, he had failed them. All he could give her was goodbye.

His heart beat slowing until each one seemed minutes apart and as she touched Godzilla's hand Miki could hear every beat. ba… bump… b-a… bu-mp… b-a… b-u-m-p… b a… b… u… m… p… His heart beat kept going slower… and slower… and… slower…

Watching his eyes close for what seemed the last time, Miki cried out no and screamed for him to come back. Watching from a distance, Kyle hung his head in silence and cried as well. For all the people watching this, they saw the demon called King Ghidorah crashing his tails to the ground and waving his heads in an idiotic manner as his putrid mind rotted into madness. His necrotic flesh began to fall in chunks and festering sores and boils began to ooze blood and puss as the death power he had taken into himself was taking its final toll. The people watching this saw the Death Sphere above New York City begin to bloat and begin casting black lightning once again, but even fiercer than before. They knew what this meant and wept.

Goodness had lost and evil had won.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fourteen

As a dead, icy wind blew through the fallen city, it could be seen by all those who wished to see. Atop a cairn of rubble, flooded with sickly sweet crimson, lay the hero that was supposed to save the world. He lay prostrate and twisted, a mutilated, broken wreck that would have been unrecognizable as the once mighty King of the Monsters. The woman who loved him and the man who had once been his enemy were at his side as he breathed his last.

Imagine this, if you will, that you're high above this scene of tragedy and sorrow and you're heading downwards towards this scene ever so slowly as the scene rotates below you. You see the saurian's battered face with broken teeth and hear the last beat of his heart until you ask whatever could it be that Godzilla sees in his last moment? From his perspective, everything seemed to grow brighter and brighter until it all disappeared in the unending white glare. When the glare died down, everything seemed to grow darker until the King of the Monsters saw a place of shadows and found himself in pain. In this strange vision, Godzilla was impaled throughout his gigantic body even more cruelly than he had been when Ghidorah attacked him with the steel girders.

All through his body, impossibly slender thread thin titanic metal blades tens of thousands of feet long lanced through his body, as if he were a frog suffering the twisted attentions of a cruel boy. The needle blades went through his thighs, through his shoulders, through his chest and straight out of his back perverted manner. Not only that, but they surrounded him as if they were a forest of spines, one or two reaching as high as his shoulder and most not. They suspended him in midair in a hunched forward, crouching position that held him still and left his head and arms dangling. He was there, suspended in the unending, infinite blackness of a strange mist shrouded valley so huge that it's colossal mountains towered over and dwarfed even Godzilla's gargantuan 100 meter tall bulk. In the darkened place, it was cold and wet and droplets of moisture condensed on the needle blades. There, the drops mingled with the blood that flowed down along the blades that went downwards to the valley bottom where they disappeared in the mist.

Although it was a place that a visitor to Godzilla's mind would not have been able to understand, it was a place that he himself knew all to well because he'd been there for a long time. Twitching in pain and stifling screams, he grit the teeth and squeezed the eyes in his hanging head shut as he was impaled ten times over in that insane position. Tortured as he was, the agony he knew surpassed any imaginable but the pain he felt was not a physical one but was instead of a spiritual nature, the very worst kind. On a closer expression, each metal blade that held him up would quickly be seen to not be made of metal at all but of memory.

On a blade that went through his right arm was the image of Godzilla failing to save his mate and of the nest where their unborn son lay, trampled. On a blade that went through his thigh, an image of having almost killed Miki could be seen. On a blade that went through his belly was the picture of the Mesozoic world completely destroyed, the bloated corpses of dinosaurs rotting in the sun. On a blade that went through his heart, were seen images of the human world. While it would seem strange for a human to think that images of cities and buildings and people would be cause for fear, for a creature for whom such things represented the death of his world, such images were nightmares.

It would seem that Godzilla was alone in that time of suffering and anguish but he was not. There was one other there with him who watched him and called him and all others like him son. That was when the saurian heard it, it was a roar louder than a hundred thunderstorms; that was when he smelt it, it was a smell like the ferns, ginkos, and cycads of jungle forests. That was when he looked up and saw it in the distance through the fog and shadow. To Godzilla's eyes, it had scales like ten fold shields, claws like spears, teeth like great swords, and it was bigger than the mountains that were at his sides.

It was made in the image of a Tyrannosaur down to the massive legs, to the short but impossibly muscled arms, to the thick and powerful chest, to the spiked ridges that ran across its brow, to the small fleshy spines that ran all along its shoulders to the tip of its tail. It was like a Tyrannosaurus Rex in all but size which was magnified a trillion fold. Black and gray, he made the world, if it was even a world they were in, tremble with his weight as he walked from the mountain from where he was and looked to Godzilla who was by comparison was less than a microbe. This saurian god was a hundred miles, nay, a hundred light years tall and was as far beyond Godzilla as he was beyond a lizard. Impaled on the needle blades, Godzilla saw this and would have gasped if he were able for he whom he saw emerging from the misty darkness was the Great Tyrannosaur.

The Emperor of all Dinosaurs, the god of all dragons, the father of all reptiles, looked at what the "King of the Monsters" endured and narrowed his eyes. He looked on him and let him know his thoughts. **MY SON, SINCE THE DAY ADAM TOOK THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT, THE MORTAL WORLD HAS KNOWN SUFFERING. YOUNG ONE, WHY THEN MUST YOU TORTURE YOURSELF SO? IS NOT THE WORLD ITSELF A SOURCE OF ENOUGH PAIN?  
**  
For all the sorrow he had felt for so long, this was what he had feared for so long: that he would face the one whom he failed. Unable to meet the Great One's gaze, Godzilla hung his head in shame. Godzilla knew he had been born to protect the subjects of the Saurian Empire and that when they needed him the most, he had failed them. Now the Empire was gone and in its place a false world built on the blood and bones of his ancestors. Straining his pained head, he looked up to show the master the grief and shame that lanced through him and pained him. He suffered as he deserved to suffer.

The Great Tyrannosaur's throat rumbled and all Creation seemed to shake. **YOUNG ONE, I TOO HAVE SEEN THE NEW WORLD AND I WEPT WHEN THE WORLD MADE FOR MY CHILDREN WAS NO MORE. I WEPT FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM WHEN THEY DIED AND YET THOUGH THEY DIED, TO PROTECT THOSE WHOM I ENTRUSTED TO YOU MY SON, YOU GAVE ALL YOU HAD. MORE THAN THAT, CANNOT BE ASKED.  
**  
As much as it could, Godzilla's face showed confusion and disbelief. The Great One did not hate him…? But he failed them, they hated him, his mate-!

He did the saurian equivalent of raising an eyebrow. **YOUR MATE, HATE YOU? I THINK NOT.** With that, the Great One turned his colossal head, one the size of a continent—a planet!—to the waist high mist shrouded mountain at his side and in that mist was the outline of someone… special. Walking from out that mist there she was, her lithe, slender body as green as emerald and her spines as purple as sapphires. Her body bent forwards and her arms held against her, Gigantis was there at the edge of the mountain top and she looked at her crucified beloved.

Straining his aching head as best he could, he saw her, his sweet, sweet mate… She…

She loved him. Gigantis walked as close as she could until her talons came over the edge of cliff and from eyes set in a green saurian face there came tears. They were tears for him as she saw him tortured like that; she loved him and nothing could ever change that. The Fire Monster swished her tail behind her and stretched her arms towards him from across the abyss; in all the eons she had looked down on him from the stars of Draco, her heart ached waiting for the day that they might be together once more.

In a shock so great that he ignored the wrenching bloody agony, if only for a moment, Godzilla's jaw dropped; she did not hate him…? She forgave him…?

Folding her hands against her chest like the Tyrannosaurs from which she and her mate descended, Gigantis shook her head. She did not forgive him. Looking at him, there was a tear covered face of devotion and unconditional love. She couldn't forgive him because there was nothing to forgive.

Godzilla couldn't believe it… but if not her then what of the others…

**INDEED, WHAT OF THE OTHERS? LOOK HERE MY SON AND UNDERSTAND.**

On another of the valley's mountain tops beyond the one where Gigantis was there appeared from the mist two elderly Tyrannosaurs at her feet. Their erect tails moving past their bodies and their small arms clutched against their massive chests, their taloned toes crunched gravel as they walked towards the very edge of the mountain top. They were… Blood Fang and Pretty Kill… Their son strained forwards to try to see them but when his sudden movement made the needle blades tear that much deeper into his body, he stopped and roared in agony. Blood spurting and pouring from his wounds, he trembled in his pain and shut his eyes; soon enough though, he weakly opened them and looked to his mother and father. They still loved him?

Pretty Kill rubbed her massive skull against her mate's throat before turning to her egg. Blood Fang looked to his son and opened his maw as far as he could to let out a roar that tore through the darkness. They held no failure and no grudge against him and loved him with all their hearts.

Soon, on the black, mist shrouded, towering mountains that surrounded Godzilla, many strange and odd creatures appeared. Scaled creatures with horns and wings and spines, some on two legs and some on four, came from the mist to stand at the edge of the mighty valley. Therapods, Pterosaurs, Ankylosaurids, Stegosaurids, Sauropods, Dromeosaurs, Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, all the saurian races came and saw him. He saw his comrades in arms, Gorosaurus and Baragon and Titanosaurus. The dinosaurs came to see him and saw their protector once more; what bitterness some few had towards him was as nothing compared to the desire they had for him to avenge them and destroy their enemy.

The blood pouring from his face, Godzilla looked to them and wondered if they were there at the master's side, then where was Anguirus?

The Great Tyrannosaur looked to his creation. **YOUR BROTHER IS NOT AMONG THOSE HERE. ANGUIRUS IS AMONG THE LIVING FOR HE IS NOT DEAD.**

What! Ignoring the bloody, tearing pain he felt in leaning forward and strained to ask the master but before he could "ask" he was cut off.

**YOUNG ONE, MY CHILDREN HOLD NO GRUDGE AGAINST YOU AND STILL LOOK TO YOU AS THEIR CHAMPION. YOU MUST NOT YIELD MY SON FOR YOU ARE THE LAST HOPE OF A FORGOTTEN RACE AND YOU MUST STAND FOR THEM, ALL OF THEM.**

Each occupying a mountaintop of the misty shadowed valley and looking at their King were the monsters that had fought and died in the Monster Wars and before it, paying the ultimate price in standing against the Prince of Skyllans.

Standing atop another mountain at the Great One's side and arching her wings was the dragoness Tiamat, the daughter of the Great Dragon—one of the One's avatars. Though as tiny as a fly next to her mammoth father, and even the mountain where she stood not reaching his knees, she looked at him with true love. She had perished seeking to avenge her father's first brood and to defend the second. If she was to have died, then it couldn't be in vain.

She looked to another mount at her grand spawn, the serpentine Apophis, a lost soul that died seeking to avenge his grand sire and find redemption. Though he'd been wrong and had sinned none had ever doubted his sincerity. At his side were his four minions, crocodile, ape, hawk, and jackal. Apophis and the rest wanted King Ghidorah to pay.

At another mount were two figures familiar to Godzilla, Rodan and his mate Fire Radon. Their predecessors had stood alongside him against the demon 65,000,000 years ago and they now had died in battling against their common foe in an effort to guard their egg. Their child could not be allowed to grow up in the world of darkness King Ghidorah would bring forth.

There were Mechanstein, Uchihikrah, and Yetrigar standing together on one mount; they'd been heroes to the core and fought to the end protecting their human charges… and their human families. Even if they themselves could not stand against the three-headed monster, if Godzilla could then he had to do so and protect the innocent. If not him, then who?

One after another all those whom King Ghidorah had killed came to the black saurian; Inagos, the Swarm, Dagarla, Kamoebas, Shiigan, Nessie, and the trillions of sentient beings that had been butchered from across the cosmos. All of them said the same thing over and over, _Avenge Me, __**Avenge Me AVENGE ME!**_

Towering over all of them, the Great Tyrannosaur's fanged reptilian face, a face with jaws that could devour mountains, filled the sky and looked down at Godzilla from above. **YOU HAVE HEARD THE WORDS THEY HAVE HAD TO SAY. DO YOU STILL RUN FROM YOUR DUTY?**

Soon enough, all those who had been there to see him disappeared into the mist and the shadows from whence they came. In the end, even his mate, Gigantis, and his parents, Blood Fang & Pretty Kill, vanished though they wept and kept their dear one in sight until the end as if telling him that they waited for the day they would be reunited forever. The needle blade through his heart burning him and his mouth dripping blood, Godzilla hung his head and clenched his fangs in anger as those he loved were taken from him again. Any feelings of warmth or compassion died with that and they were replaced with the stone cold hatred he had known for so long.

His body quivering the anger, he focused a bitter gaze towards the Great Tyrannosaur. Many monsters looked to him as their leader, their king, and now they beseeched him to fight one last battle and avenge them. Yet the kaiju that asked that of him were all kaiju that had licked the hands of humans and that had gone to be their mewling slaves. Ignoring the grinding pain, Godzilla held up his fist to his face before impaling the back of it on one of the needle blades, his arm and chest quivering in pain.

As blood spurted upwards and then ran down along the blade and on his hand, he thought of how humans ran from monsters. Yet he also wondered how many more monsters ran from humans, gathering in holes like refuse? As Godzilla raised his other arm to impale it against another needle blade, he asked why should kaiju hide themselves in the shadows of man as they, the monsters, were the unclean? Slamming his hand through the blade and feeling skin and bone and tendon shredded, Godzilla knew that monsters too deserved the right to live!

Godzilla's agonized roars echoed through the mist of the valley and reached the master's ears. As blood spurted and showered, the Great Tyrannosaur looked at his chosen one's self inflicted mutilations with mild interest. If the young one wanted answers, he would have them. **"REPTILES ARE ABHORRENT BECAUSE OF THEIR COLD BODY, PALE COLOR, CARTILAGINOUS SKELETON, FILTHY SKIN, FIERCE ASPECT, CALCULATING EYE, OFFENSIVE SMELL, HARSH VOICE, SQUALID HABITATION, AND TERRIBLE VENOM; WHEREFORE, THEIR CREATOR HAS NOT EXERTED HIS POWER TO MAKE MANY OF THEM." THE HUMAN CARROLUS LINNEAS SAID THOSE WORDS IN CLASSIFYING THE BEASTS OF THE WORLD.  
**  
Abhorrent? Trembling with indignation as he was impaled, Godzilla felt the blood drip from his body and the hate well up. Reptiles are abhorrent? That was how those wretched mammals viewed his race!

**I HAVE SEEN THOSE THAT STAND IN PLACE OF THE SAURIAN MY SON. THEY ARE A STRANGE RACE THAT FEARS WHAT IT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. IN THAT FEAR, THEY HATE AND PERSECUTE THE KAIJU AS IF BY DOING SO WE MAY NO LONGER EXIST. TO THE HUMANS, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THEY CAN PROTECT THEMSELVES, BY BANISHING US FROM THEIR THOUGHTS, THEIR HEARTS, AND THEIR MEMORIES. WITH THEIR AGE ENDED, PERHAPS IT IS EVEN THE LAST VESTIGE OF THEIR PRIDE.**

The blade through his heart made of feelings towards the human world flared and burned at those words and the King of the Monsters roared. His people would not pretend! They would not continue to hide! His rage momentarily spent, Godzilla let his head fall on pierced and bloody heaving chest. All kaiju, himself included, wished for peace with the humans, but the price was high, too high for those monsters that could not accept the label "outcast." But why should they do so!

Seething and barely able to keep his rage in check, the impaled Godzilla knew he was not immune to desire but that desire became anger and that anger wishes to make war. It was war against the humans that hated the blood that flowed through him. If not for his innocent staying his hand, he would have long since murdered every man, woman, and child on the Earth but because she was there he could not. What other course then did have but to torture himself, that… OR TO KILL THE HUMANS!

The Great One heard those thoughts and saw his chosen one tortured by his own self. Quivering, with dried blood caked on him, what of Godzilla and his anger? What was he to do with it…? **YOUR INNOCENT… "AND THE PROPHET SAID, 'AND LO, THE BEAST LOOKED UPON THE FACE OF BEAUTY AND STAYED ITS HAND FROM KILLING. AND FROM THAT DAY, IT WAS AS ONE DEAD.'" THE WORDS OF ANOTHER HUMAN.  
**  
**BEFORE YOU MET MIKI, IT WAS SO MUCH EASIER, WASN'T IT? NO REMORSE, NO GUILT… BUT WITH HER AS YOUR CONSCIENCE IT'S NOT SO SIMPLE. SINCE KNOWING HER, YOUR IMPULSES TO KILL HUMANS HAVE GIVEN YOU GRAVE DOUBTS. **_**THIS**_** IS THE SOURCE OF YOUR SELF TORTURE AND YOUR GREAT SUFFERING. YOUNG ONE, **_**LISTEN**_**, THAT YOU ARE STILL ABLE TO FEEL REMORSE AND KNOW LOVE FOR YOUR INNOCENT SHOWS THAT YOURS IS STILL A RIGHTEOUS HEART.**

With that, the master changed. His arms grew longer and from his back, wings sprouted; his head grew smaller even as his brow ridges became horns. Then, in the shape of a dragon, he reared back in his hind legs he lunged his head forwards to spit out a blast of flame that engulfed Godzilla. The fire swallowed him as if he were an insect and incinerated the needle blades of hate and shame that lanced through him. It was a flame that made his own Atomic Ray in all it's imagined nuclear glory look like an ember yet though the fire consumed him it did not burn; instead, enveloping him in its warming light, it healed. It made the lances of sorrow and pain disappear and wounds of shame and guilt that had festered for 65,000,000 years close. With them gone, the saurian fell crashing downwards to the mist shrouded ground below and crashed on it at the feet of the master. Smoking from the fire, he got up and craned his neck to look at the one who towered over him into infinity.

The Great One looked down at his hind talons at Godzilla who was relatively tinier than a microbe and at the red circle of fire that was ringed around him and made the infinite darkness around them both disappear. **TO SOME, I AM CALLED THE GREAT DRAGON; KNOW THEN, THAT THAT WHICH CIRCLES YOU IS MY DRAGON FIRE AND IT IS MADE OF THE LOVE AND FAITH OF ALL THEY WHO WOULD BELIEVE IN YOU, **_**ALL**_** FROM MYSELF TO YOUR INNOCENT. TAKE IT BUT ONLY IF YOU ASK YOURSELF, THIS HEART OF YOURS, THESE FEELINGS, CAN YOU COME TO LOVE THEM? CAN YOU NOT COME TO PEACE WITH YOUR OWN HEART?  
**

With Matsu it was a global affair and people watching this around the world were crying as they saw this. In darkened rooms they were covered in their television's glare and they saw it, they saw and cried for the hero who had given everything for them. Many of them recalled how they'd been taught to hate the monsters that had come to cover the world and had hated Godzilla most of all for being the mightiest of them and for being their king. But over the course of the Monster Wars, the people of the world had come to see that it wasn't so simple and for all he did to fight King Ghidorah, that Godzilla was their last, best hope. They'd come to call him hero and savior and now children clutched their parent's hands and wept even as those parents fought back their own tears and refused to believe what was going on.

In the mortal world, Kyle Martin and Miki Segeusa were still there amidst the red rubble and still trying to wake him up. It was a scene of sorrow and despair, that neither though possible but both were forced to face as if it were the death of a brother. Sobbing, the psychic stood next the monster's giant hand and tried with all her might to move it. "Godzilla please, don't give up…!"

Holding back his tears, the kaijuologist slowly walked towards her through the ankle deep blood and placed a hand on her shoulder. Looking at the cold corpse, he said, "Miki, its all over… its that… his blood and his guts are all…"

Oblivious to his very existence, except for how she refused to believe his words, she was numb to reality itself and kneeled at Godzilla's side. Mutely scooping the blood that still flowed from the saurian's wounds, his innocent felt it slip through her hands and run down her arms. With trembling lips, she squeezed her eyes shut and whispered, "Don't go… don't leave him…"

Her hands clenching into fists, she screamed, "Don't go!"

Then all of a sudden a continuous explosion of blinding light flared up, knocking Kyle backwards and grabbing the attention of all those who were still on TV watching. In the eye of the luminous hurricane, as blood turned to light and then swirled around in a vortex, there was Miki at the saurian's side, both of whom were illuminated by the glow. As the blood turned to light and was swept away so was one tear that came from her face as she said, "Even if it is a kaiju's, its Godzilla's blood… its not even a little dirty."

Then, in a psychic shout that was heard around the world, a shout that people would tell their children and grandchildren they head, Miki yelled on her knees, "Godzilla's blood is not dirty and neither is his soul!"

Then in a place that was not a place and in a moment that was not a moment, balls of light swirled around and into Godzilla, covering him, wrapping themselves around him. It continued, faster and faster, until they were spent and slowed and finally stopped leaving one tear to slowly, ever so slowly, fall down and touch his heart. For a time there was silence and there was stillness but once again the light flared and once again in the mortal world those who saw were blinded for a time and could not believe what they saw. Whether they were there with the King of the Monsters or were in the UN base watching this via camera drones, or at home watching it on TV thanks to Matsu, they saw Godzilla, moments before reduced to a mutilated wreck, rise up unharmed and at the utmost strength.

The blood that had stained the ground in all directions and that had stained her hands evaporated, Miki slowly got to her feet and craned her neck to see Godzilla who even at that moment looked down at her. With eyes narrowed and looking keenly at her, the Great Dragon's champion looked at the maiden who had once sought to be his draconic sacrifice but who would stay with him until the end. With eyes wide and breathless, the maiden looked to the dragon that had fought to the finish for her and who would stay with her until the end. Towering over everything, towering over the broken constructs of man, the titan was truly the King of the Monsters. However there was another king in his kingdom, and that was… intolerable.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Fifteen

His mind gone, his body dieing from having taken the death power the way he had, King Ghidorah pranced around like an idiot among the ruins of Manhattan, slipping on loose rubble here and there. It was all over, amidst the rubble strewn crater, the two-hundred meter tall cretin had won! Yet as all rational though rotted away in madness, he felt the ground beneath him tremble. Had the demon still had his wits about him, he would have known what that would have meant and would have prepared a defense. Even so, the evil one continued his playtime, shifting from foot to foot, waving his necks about.

That was when a Red Ray blasted him from behind, sending him flying forwards and leaving his back a flaming mass of blood and blisters. In agony, Ghidorah tried to get up but just as he was about to do it, a crushing had grabbed his middle neck and sent his crashing heads first into a flaming, crumbling building. Nearly insensate, the three-headed monster struggled to get up and wondered who it was that could have done this.

He struggled to his broken feet and looked around, not knowing what he'd find and he saw Godzilla, King of the Monsters! Ghidorah's three heads lashed about this way and that in confusion; this was impossible, Godzilla was dead! The last of the Supersaurs bared his fangs and growled; well then, that just meant that he didn't stay "dead" then, didn't it? Amidst the flame and ruin, amidst the dead and broken city, amidst the thunder and lightning that split the darkness around them, they looked on each other, the hero asking for one last round and the villain, gladly obliging.

Fast as lightning, King Ghidorah loosed a Triple Beam against his foe but the Great One's champion fired a Red Spiral Ray. The beams locked and each monster continued the fire with all his strength until it caused an explosion that sent the demon staggering back with a shower of sparks. Unfazed, the Prince of Skyllans let out his wings and loosed a barrage of Crimson Lightning but Godzilla blocked it and countered with a Atomic Shockwave. King Ghidorah was blasted backwards by it but immediately leapt up to appease his insane hatred and have his revenge!

In the air, and flapping his wings, he dodged his enemy's fire this way and that went up several thousands of feet into the air before going into a death dive. Barrel rolling past each attack, the Devil's Hammer pivoted his head back and slammed his taloned feet into Godzilla knocking him on his back. Before he could get up, the evil one leapt on his chest with all the thousands of tons he could bring to bear. King Ghidorah kept stomping, up and down, making the island shake, making the ground tremble, making organs rupture. Feeling his ribs break, Godzilla drove through the pain and spun beneath the demon making him fall off and then leaping on top of the demon to half claw swipe, half punch the beast into submission.

"I don't believe it folks, Godzilla's back and he's cleaning house! The last we saw just moments ago, he was dying and it looked like that was it but as you can see…" A smiling Connie Matsu faced the audience and gestured behind herself with her free hand to the two battling monsters. "… That is not the case now! The pair of die-hards behind me-" she almost lost her balance as the battle made the building shake but steadied herself "-as I was saying… the, the pair of die-hards behind me are taking it to the limit this time because this time they're playing for keeps! No rules, no strategy, it's going to whoever wants it the most! It's a street fight! It's a gutter war! No holds barred in New York!"

As for the people watching they could see when Ronnie zoomed in that Godzilla wasn't kidding about playing for keeps. Stomping his foot on Ghidorah's necks again and again trying to snap it, the King of the Monsters used all his strength. However when he slammed his foot the last time, he was electrocuted as a billion volts ran through the demon's skin and leave the hero spasming in electric shock. In that pain, he roared.

Dizzy from the hated agony of electric shock, he was temporarily unaware when King Ghidorah got up and once again tried to use the advantage of the sky. Even so, the rage cleared Godzilla's mind as he saw the demon ascend; determined to not let him escape, he leapt up and caught hold. Now high above the ruined, flaming battlefield, the saurian hung on with his left arm even as bit his with teeth and struck with his right; feeling his own life ebbing, the Bane of Life felt every blow count double. Struggling in the air to cast his enemy off until Godzilla hung from the demon's middle neck by his teeth, he was finally thrown off, crashing to the ground.

Feeling his bones break once again, the Supersaur, ignored the pain but just as was about to stand, he was slammed to the ground when King Ghidorah slammed on him like a gold brick thrown from a mile high. Kicking out, Godzilla fired a Red Spiral Ray and blasted as fiercely as he could through both of the demon's wings. King Ghidorah wailed and squeezed six eyes shut as his emaciated wings were torn like tissue paper and skin was splattered everywhere. Unseen by the agonized devil, the Great One's champion scrambled to his feet and, filled with righteous wrath, unleashed a hellish firestorm of red and yellow that consumed the sinner and vaporized everything within one hundred fifty feet of him.

Unrelenting in his fury and unceasing in his power, Godzilla poured all his strength into it until his back spines and ray flared so bright that everything around was bleached white. The shimmering air ionized and everything solid vaporized, even the rubble around them burst into flame and broken asphalt below turned to bubbling tar from the heat. He kept it up until he could give no more and stopped, his chest heaving and his smoking spines a dull, cherry red. Before him, there was a smoke choked inferno whose thick black clouds made in impossible for anything to see; Ghidorah couldn't have survived, he couldn't. Even so he didn't lower his guard for a second, but he nonetheless couldn't believe it when King Ghidorah, **on fire**, charged him, blasting and screaming all Gravity Beams the while! Completely covered from heads to toes in raging one hundred foot high flames, the charred and blackened attacking monster seemed to scream die, die, die!

Countering with fang and claw, Godzilla knew that the three-headed monster had gone completely insane! As for the evil one, he no longer cared about destroying all life or even just Earth just as long as he killed Godzilla! As if it were and not his mate who was the Fire Monster, plunged into the flames delivering a bone shattering punch to the evil one's belly, feeling blood and puss make it slippery. Each punch striking more and more, King Ghidorah was punched up off the ground and black bile poured from his three mouths as this happened. Thinking to retake the offensive, the demon leapt back to deliver a roundhouse tail whip but Godzilla caught on to that tired old attack and dodged the spiny clubs before grabbing them and using his enemy's own momentum to spin him around.

After seeing the burned and blistered Ghidorah buried underneath a mound of rubble, the King of the Monsters afforded himself a brief respite, looking to where poisoned spikes had left his hands bloody gashes. Yet even as he did so, the wounds began to close themselves. Godzilla's throat rumbled in approval at this and he turned back to where the rubble was shifting. At that, everything seemed to shake and the rubble flew off in an explosion and the demon simultaneously delivered a Triple Beam and Crimson Lightning. Godzilla blocked it, however, and as he growled, he prepared to meet the demon's last suicidal charge.

Everyone watching saw that the King of the Monsters wasn't moving or doing anything at all as Ghidorah rushed him; at that many screamed for him to do something, anything! When the evil one came within striking distance he did; the three-headed monster lunged forwards to bite with all three heads but Godzilla, cool as ice, side stepped it. Then, in a moment that nobody would ever forget, he took a hold of Ghidorah's necks to deliver a shoulder throw! The demon was sent crashing forwards through the air so hard that he was driven fifty feet deep into the broken asphalt.

The people couldn't believe it; it was as if Godzilla were a pro-wrestler delivering a suplex or something! They were even more in disbelief when he grabbed the three-headed monster as he struggled to get up and did it again. And again! At that, the people in UN HQ got up in disbelief with dropping jaws and everything seemed to go in slow motion for them. It was as they saw the hero roar with all his might as he sent King Ghidorah flying over his shoulder and slamming against the gravel before him with all his might. (However, that last strike made plaster fall from the ceiling and had people sprawling on the ground.)

As the battle reached a fever pitch amongst the flaming ruins, neither combatant wished to back down, Ghidorah striking with his three heads and Godzilla striking with his claws. It was the battle of good and evil, light vs. darkness, right vs. wrong, that raged throughout the cosmos and in every soul. For survival of the world, it would all be decided there and tonight, there'd be no turning back. Tonight, it would end forever!

It was then in one final suicidal attack that would kill the both of them, that the burned, bloodied, broken, three-headed monster rushed forwards and clamped his outer head's jaws onto his enemy's hands, impaling his needle teeth through bone flesh even as his middle neck wrapped itself around the enemy's throat. King Ghidorah did this even as he wrapped his wings around his hated enemy's body, point blank Crimson Lightning striking all the while. He did this even as he loosed electrical charges through his body to strike.

With that and attacked from every direction, Godzilla roared in agony or would have roared in agony if he had been able to as he was throttled. Gasping for air and receiving none, the King of the Monsters shook and tried to throw King Ghidorah off of him but was unable to. Feeling poison leak through his pierced hands and the diabolic Taint weakening him, the Great Tyrannosaur's champion grew weaker. Kicking with legs and thrashing with his tail, Godzilla this was naught but madness! For Ghidorah to use his Taint now was suicide!

The three-headed monster knew this but he didn't care; he didn't care about anything anymore! He would die only after Godzilla died with him! Dizzy and nauseous, the saurian fought with all he had but it wasn't enough as black lightning bolt after black lightning bolt fell from the Death Sphere and empowered the demon and strengthened his poisons. Now frothing at the mouth and futilely trying to use his ray, the Supersaur felt his own strength waning as the death power weakened him.

From the broken building they were reporting on, Ronnie's camera hand trembled even as Connie's strong voice shook. "I don't, I… don't believe it folks… Godzilla's losing! …C'mon Godzilla you've gotta win!"

At that everyone around the world from Secretary General Santos seeing it at the UN base's super screen to some redneck hearing it on a half busted radio heard this and grew silent. They knew what this meant and dared not even breath; then, in that silence, they whispered and they whispered that same thing. "Don't give up Godzilla, we believe you. You're our hero, we believe in you!"

In Ireland, a young couple on their couch in their apartment was watching this on TV. The man ran his hand over his wife's swollen womb. For their future child they said, "We believe in you."

In Canada, a grizzled old man and his adult children gathered together in his trailer were hearing it all on their radio. The old man's hand's trembling and he threw aside his jug of moonshine, breaking it and spilling its alcohol. For the family he had cared for, for so long, he said, "Dammit, I believe in you!"

In Japan, a small boy was huddled at the screen along with his pensive parents. The boy was holding a stuffed Godzilla toy and he held it tight. For his parents and his brothers he said, "I believe in you."

All over the world people saw this and for their friends, for their universe, they shouted, "We believe in you! We believe in you!" He heard their words, somehow he heard their thoughts. They were the same thoughts that the dinosaurs gave him so long ago; he'd failed before but he daren't fail again, not ever again! He couldn't let Ghidorah win; everyone was counting on him!

Straining and twisting, he was driven by their faith—the faith that so many had had in him for so long—and was filled with the holy fire that the Dragon had bestowed upon him and with the Dragon Fire summoned all his strength to deliver an Atomic Shockwave the likes of which shook the heavens and shook the earth! A searing, electric blue light going out in all directions, the now mutilated, bloodied, wounded, burned, and gashed, King Ghidorah was blasted away. He then crashed with the thud of broken bones, blistered and seared by the explosion of goodness.

The area around him clouded and the ground as smooth and clear as glass, Godzilla looked to where his opponent lay. On his back, the three-headed monster looked up in disgust at his now advancing adversary as the hero was enveloped in a halo of light made of virtue and truth. All three of them burned and blistered with broken gums bleeding, King Ghidorah shook his heads as he felt hatred beyond anything even he deemed possible. Before, he had been able to respect Godzilla as a worthy adversary for his ferocity and strength but now he had turned traitor! He wielded Leviathan's dragon fire! He was fighting no longer for the sake of sweet vengeance but for the sake of accursed justice! No more, no more!

With that the devil's hammer half ran, half stumbled, away from the battlefield to get enough speed. With that, he painfully stretched out his burnt, torn, broken wings as he rose into the air to kill Godzilla, kill him once and for all!

It was seen by all that the bloody and battered three-headed monster was clumsily flying from Godzilla with broken wings and not turning back. With what seemed a retreat, it looked like the Monster Wars were finished as the beast left the island that had been very nearly destroyed save for the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and a few others. He left the broken island and flew away into the sky on ruined wings as fast as he could until he was little more than a receding speck. Many people watching this interpreted it as something good, Matsu among them. "My God IT'S OVER! WE WON!" Whipping around to face her audience and giddy with joy, she said, "Thank God it's finally over, King Ghidorah is beat and he's running… oh no…"

Yet it was not so because very soon all realized what was happening. In the underground UN Base, the people there were watching this in silence, refusing to believe it would end so easily but with Miki Segeusa she craned her neck to the sky and slowly shook her head. The fears of those few that dared not believe that it was over were sadly soon confirmed as King Ghidorah slowed in his ascent, leaving himself stationary in midair. Thousands of feet above the broken city, the demon was a speck in how far away he was from the Death Sphere when he turned around beneath the swirling, black, lightning spewing clouds. There, he opened three broken mouths and spat three weakened, shaking Gravity Beams to wrap around it and pull it up with him as he rocketed upwards.

Going bone white and barely able to keep from falling from her knees, the trembling reporter turned around to face the trembling camera and address her viewers. Unable to keep the fear from her voice, she said, "This, this is it people… The Death Sphere… h-he's g-going to use his World Extinction Attack… he's going to use it now and… a-and kill us all, kill us the way he killed his own creators… NOOO!"

With that, every thing that could fly was in the air shooting with every last ounce of ordinance it had but as they desperately raced faster and faster and higher and higher it was seen that it was no where near enough. It seemed as if the entire Aerial Defense Force of Earth was there as aircraft after aircraft delivered bullets, missiles, rockets, energy beams and more. Frantic pilots suicidally crashed their planes against the demon but he ignored it as he went higher and higher past the clouds. Squadrons of attack choppers, fighter planes, and maser jets kept making pass after pass higher than their capabilities could allow but King Ghidorah left them out of range, cackling maniacally all the while. As they stalled and spun back out of control from futile climbs, blue beams—and then red beams—of searing energy shot past the planes blasting through the clouds from on the ground and ionizing the air it passed through. Not sparing a single glance to see that Godzilla was doing this, the devil that rode on golden wings dodged and weaved, every shot missing him.

Remotely viewing all this from her vantage point on the streets of Manhattan, Miki screamed, "Somebody stop him!" But nobody could. Faster and faster, the devil's hammer soared through the upper atmosphere until he left the sky behind him and reached the icy blackness of space. Above the blue curve of the Earth, King Ghidorah was amidst the stars and the moon when he turned around and stopped, looking at the wretched planet below. With that, he hurled his necks backwards and the Death Sphere with them. All the defeats thrust on him by the miserable, backsliding mud hole called Earth were intolerable but now it would end, now it would ALL end, now and forever! Holding the bloated, red and black energy pulsating Death Sphere above him he seemingly said, MAGGOTS, WATCH YOUR FUTURES END!

Far below all this on the shattered streets of Manhattan, the King of the Monsters saw this and charged his power, as if he were saying, NOT TODAY! With that the Great One's champion released the full force of the Dragon Fire bestowed on him-a force so powerful he could barely fight the recoil with his tail-and it shot through the sky, through space, as a beam of red fire laced with yellow lightning until it struck the demon. But when it struck the demon, it exploded with the force of a super nova! Blood and bone flying everywhere and enveloped in the Dragon Fire that blasted all the way through him, King Ghidorah was like a fly caught in a nuclear explosion as he was enveloped in an inferno seen across two continents. As the fire passed, he just seemed to hover there for a time before he slowly, ever so slowly, began to fall, accelerating all the while. Like a meteor, the Star of Doom the demon fell faster and faster, accelerating all the while, friction heat igniting into a fireball that peeling his skin all the while. It was intolerable…!

On the ground, people past the black cloud over New York who saw this on TV rushed out side and looked up whereon they saw the brightest light they'd ever seen light up the entire night sky. Not only they but past them beneath a blackened sun and a darkened moon everyone looked at their screens; they all saw this and saw something else. As the blinding glare of the explosion died down it was replaced with what looked to be a pin prick of light. On seeing it the eyes went wide and the world held its breath as it saw what seemed like a comet falling to the ground because they all knew what was going to happen. In his underground UN Base, Santos saw the image that the camera drones broadcast from directly up on the main mega screen and said, "… 'for 'twas I who beheld Satan when he fell from heaven like lightning…' …My God, everyone brace for impact!"

Like the comets of old that presaged disaster, the shooting star fell glowed brighter and more fiercely as it came closer and closer until it hit. In the end, nobody knew if it was the will of God or just random chance that it happened, but it all ended when King Ghidorah crashed through the Chrysler Building. Crashing through the building and impaled through the spire, there was an explosion unseen since Hiroshima as fire and thunder seemed to shake the world as the blast touched all things for a ten mile radius. In the UN Base, people were knocked to the ground or desperately grabbed a hold of something, anything, as the roof fell and the lights went out. As for Ronnie and Connie, they lay flat on their bellies on the roof of the building they reported on and as for Miki, she and Kyle hid beneath a telekinetic force bubble Miki had erected as the explosion howled around them.

For who knows how long the entire island of Manhattan shook as the flames licked everything before it was flattened by the blast. When the blast was done, a mushroom cloud appeared where the Chrysler Building had been, sucking all in and making dust and ash rain down. For a time after the explosion died down, everything was silent and nobody anywhere could see anything. On their broken building, the two grimy reporters coughed and gagged as they struggled to get back up. Though they choked on the dust that filled their mouths and covered their tattered clothes, Ronnie checked his camera and focused on Connie who began reporting.

"I'm not sure what happened folks. It looked like King Ghidorah was going to use his World Extinction Attack and destroy all life on Earth when Godzilla used his ray to shoot him down. However, I have no idea where even he could have such…limitless power. Wait… there's a wind blowing and it… is beginning to clear away the smoke, I can't see anything yet though."

Meanwhile, back in the underground base, Santos dusted himself off and got up. "Everyone all right?" On seeing that nobody was seriously injured, he turned to the technicians and said, "Alright, I want you to get emergency power right away. Once that's established get the main screen back on line immediately and the lesser screens, if possible."

With that, everyone who wasn't too badly injured immediately went to work, ignoring the showers of sparks that occasionally fell, brushing the fallen plaster from their work stations, and walking around the fallen beams. Lights sputtered back to life and the screen flared as a rain of static; the team fixed that problem soon enough but there wasn't much to see, however. Everyone a mass of frayed nerves and on the very edge they stayed silent as the main screen alternated between silence and sound, picture and black. However, the screen ultimately stayed constant and the images the last four or five camera drones left were broadcast to it.

It was still difficult to see with the haze getting in the way but it was clearing up. Flying through what was left of the dust that would choke them, the drones whizzed along through it and their operators keyed one onto Martin and Segeusa's last recorded position. The flying machine made its way to a strange, little glow and hovered twenty feet above it; its camera zoomed in on the glow and it was seen to be a force bubble. On dissipating it revealed Kyle and Miki who stood up and craned their necks to look up at the machine; they shouted and waved their hands to show the people at HQ it was them.

The lone machine whirled around them three times to let them know they were seen before flying away to join the other camera drones. As it and the others zoomed in to where the Chrysler Building had stood, the strong wind helped immensely with how it blew away what remained of the haze. Closing in on where the tower had once stood, the camera drone showed that nearly every last building on the island had been completely destroyed. Where some had stood there was only rubble, if that much; many others had just been razed to the foundations and in some cases to the bedrock. As per Segeusa's prescience Matsu's building still stood up, of course; the Empire State Building was still there as was the Natural History Museum and a few scattered structures.

For the most part, however, it looked just like Tokyo after the Allied fire bombings or the worst of London after the worst of the Blitz in that it was a scene of total devastation, a scene of smoldering, ruined rubble. The entire megalopolis had been flattened for as far as the eye could see. Yet as the camera drones flew in from all directions, they encountered ground zero of the blast zone and it was very different. Some of the people in the command center strained their eyes and managed to catch two gigantic images in the haze, one sprawled on the ground and the other was a distance away, hunched over with chest heaving. After passing a colossal circle of rubble, the image showed that everything had either been blasted flat or had been melted into sand. As the camera drones got closer, everything seemed to have been blasted clean but as they did so the last of the haze blew away and it was revealed to all.

There, atop a great cairn of rubble, was a broken, eviscerated, beheaded, mutilated, charred, dismembered, corpse. It was the lifeless corpse of King Ghidorah. His entire body—or what was left of it—was burning and it was already burnt black; his right wing was completely gone and his left was blasted to blackened bone. The unburned flesh on both his legs was pulverized into jelly as both feet were nearly broken off. Impaled through his belly was the spire of the Chrysler building and around were his splattered guts. As for his middle neck…well, it just wasn't there. It had been torn off and liquefied into a yellow acidic slime that oozed out from the steaming, pulpy mass that had once been a chest.

The people watching this from Connie Matsu's broadcast saw the view slowly shift from left to right away from King Ghidorah to the other side of the crater. At the other side was the tired and aching Godzilla, hunched over and chest heaving from exhaustion, he was hurting all over. Covered in scars and cuts and bruises, bones broken and not a few organs all but ruptured, he was hurting but was still alive. As he cast a look to his enemy, the wind died down and there was perfect silence. Slowly walking over to the body of his enemy and hurting all over, the last Supersaur's feet limped through the sand and no more noise than that was made. Reaching the body he looked it over and nudged it with his good foot; there was no movement. He nudged it again and again, no movement.

For a time there was no sound or movement on part of anyone, not by the people at UN HQ and not by anyone watching it on TV, as everyone looked to Godzilla who was just staring at King Ghidorah remains. Then, Godzilla threw his head back and roared and the entire planet exploded in jubilation! The soldiers on the front line cried out and jumped and wept. Yes, even the "manliest" of those fighting men for all their boasts of strength fell to their knees and wept; for all their manhood they wept. For Santos and his crew they jumped up from their seats to shout and to hug everyone within arm's reach. As if God Himself had thrown open the Gates of Heaven to let the music of glory thunder inside them, they danced and leapt in exultation. Goodhue, Hayashida, Aso, all of them and even as people were dancing and shouting and throwing papers into the air, Santos slammed his fist to the hand rest and yelled, "YEAH, ALRIGHT!"

Everywhere, in every town, every house, every city, every body leapt to their feet and screamed in pure pandemonium. The heads of state watching this shouted as the glory of final victory filled them with a joy the likes of which they didn't now even existed. Not even the mad Allied celebration at the defeat of the Axis forces could compare as people of every nation, race, and creed from around the world leapt up and hugged and kissed everyone in arms reach. The shouts of joy touched the Heaven as the black pall that King Ghidorah had used to cover the sun was lifted and its lights covered the world once again. Storms stopped blowing, earthquakes stopped shaking, poisons turned to water, and darkness turned to light. The people saw this as they ran outside and, never thinking that there could be such happiness, ran inside to listen to what a certain reporter said.

"We've done it, and… oh thank God…!" Unable to stop crying, Connie Matsu stopped until she regained control, letting twin tear streaks carve paths through the grime on her cheeks. "Everyone… it's… it's finally over; King Ghidorah is beaten once and for all and it was Godzilla who beat him. Ever since the Age of Monsters began… we've spat on him, cursed him, hunted him, and his kind for over forty years… and it was Godzilla who saved us all. We believed in him and he believed in us. Faith rewarded, our planet is safe again thanks to our hero. Now we know that, truly, it is not man who is not ruler of all Creation."

Matsu spared a look to the still roaring King of the Monsters and bit her lip letting his cry of triumph ring loud and clear. "It's over."

And yet it was not over because a block away from Miki and standing on the shifting pile of stone and steel on the streets of the city was Kyle. He still had the backpack slung over his shoulder and holding it in front of him, he pulled out the parts of the mini-bazooka. Putting them together and loading his Toxin, he said, "Yes, it is over." 


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Sixteen

All over the world, every man, woman, and child was cheering at the greatest moment in human history took place before their very eyes. It was absolute pandemonium across the globe as people danced and sang and cheered but there was one place where there was no dancing and singing and cheering. Oddly enough it was where people would expect the celebrations to be greatest; it was the human front lines of what most everyone thought was the final battle of the Monster Wars. Though the soldiers and their officers at first had been cheering along with everyone for Godzilla's victory, the cries of the officers quickly faded.

The plan supposedly called for Godzilla to destroy Ghidorah and if he should fall for the human armies to avenge him. In reality it called for Godzilla and Ghidorah to kill each other and if one were to survive to kill him, whoever it might be. Aso and Goodhue had been told the lie to get Miki Segeusa to help; she had agreed to ask the King of the Monsters only after they assured her that they would never hurt him. She had believed Aso and never even bothered to mind scan him. Aso had restricted the truth of the matter only to the COs, however, knowing that if too many people knew that the "background noise" would be enough to tip the psychic off. That was why while the enlisted men cheered, honestly and sincerely cheered to thank Godzilla for what he had done, their officers did not.

They couldn't do it. They knew they had their orders, these leaders of men knew they were expected to lead their soldiers and try to kill the saurian. They knew they were expected to kill the saurian that had just saved their lives at nearly the cost of his own, the saurian that had saved the world. The Commanding Officers knew what their orders were but as they silently looked at Godzilla, they just couldn't do it. Yet although they couldn't do it, Kyle would.

The Champion of the Great Tyrannosaur had won, he had done the impossible! Yet for now, his feelings were tempered with caution; he had to find Miki. Hurting all over, Godzilla walked on aching feet towards where he had last seen her, watching his step all the while. Too tired to keep it raised like it normally was, his tail dragged as his gnarled black head craned this way and that looking for his innocent. Ignoring the sound of his feet crunching rubble like gravel, he locked on to the psychic sound of Segeusa's mind and walked towards there, though with a sense of worry as it was panicked mind.

Homing in on her mind, he quickened his pace and made the ground tremble; he ultimately found her on the remains of a broken street with broken, flattened buildings at her sides. Godzilla found her there… with the human. Looming some three-hundred feet over them, they were enveloped in his shadow yet they paid no attention to him at all, hadn't even heard him coming, and were instead focused on each other. In fact, from his point of view, it looked as if they were fighting. A person on the ground, however, would have had a much better understanding of what was going on.

"Kyle, are you crazy! You can't do this!"

He struggled to wrest the bazooka from her grip. "You don't understand! He'll just kill again after this, I have to kill him while I have the chance!"

Miki proved a formidable foe with how she used telekinesis to amplify her strength but it wasn't enough because Kyle managed to throw her on the ground where she landed with a thud and a grunt. Knowing that that would grab Godzilla's attention whom he had seen out the corner of his eye, he whipped around to face the beast filled with hate. "That's right you ugly freak, you want me, you got me!"

Segeusa tried to get up and stop him but he looked back to point the bazooka back at her, shouting, "Stay out of this Miki or you'll taste Toxin yourself! This is between me and the lizard and one way or another we settle this tonight!"

The King of the Monsters saw what Kyle had done and was filled with tremendous anger; how dare the human strike Miki! He understood of the insect's words well enough and threw his head back to roar as he knew that it would end tonight.

Kyle Martin craned back to see the colossal thirty story saurian's reaction through the bazooka's telescopic sight. He saw and spat, though he was still torn up inside by what he had to do. "Yeah, you're smart enough to know what I'm saying lizard and you remember how my germ Toxin hit you like the Ebola virus. It would've killed you if Miki hadn't made me give you a cure. Not this time freak, this time it ends!"

Godzilla looked down at the arrogant insect—the microbe!—with its pretensions of significance and knew that if were ever to kill another human it would be this one! He would strike Miki, he would seek to kill him and who knows what else; for that he raised his foot to crush the maggot beneath his heel because this time it would end.

All other thoughts replaced by suicidal acceptance and angry tears coming from him, Kyle looked up at the foot being hoisted over him. He screamed, "So you're going to kill me to? Then do it! I won't be able to get out of the way but I'll still be able to hit you with my poison. Kill me like you killed my brother and God knows how many others hero. Do it then… Do it! _Put us both out of our misery! __**Do it now so we can both die!**_**"**

"No…" whispered Miki. She raced between them with arms stretched out between them and shouted, "NOOO!"

Both Kyle and Godzilla felt bitter hatred fill them but as they felt the hatred everything seemed to disappear around them. When it vanished, both found themselves somewhere else and what they both saw were things that neither would ever forget.

Kyle Martin was confused and disoriented as he saw a place of blackness. When his vision cleared, he saw it was the jet black broken caldera of a volcano beneath an overcast night sky. The desolation was horrible, it was like the end of the world but people were there as there was a satellite broadcaster. Indeed the scene changed to one of soldiers underneath their tent, going about their duties as a jeep rolled past them. But near that tent was a large truck that had been converted into a research station; on looking at his instruments, a soldier went to man whom Kyle recognized as Hayashida and said, "Professor, Godzilla has been sighted."

But as a gnarled, colossal black head slowly rose up over the mountain top amidst thunder, it wasn't what Kyle expected. The people there watched a head, then shoulders, and a body rise up it was seen that their keeper was sick and sad. Weary of own wretched existence, he had no reason left to live and death would be little more than a relief because except for misery, he would have nothing left to lose. Sick and guilty for what he had done, the saurian reached the rim of the volcano; he looked down at the searing lava deep below and then looked to the dish that constantly played its message.

By now Martin knew what this was. It was Oshima Island off the coast of Japan near Tokyo and the year was 1985 when Godzilla returned to wreak his vengeance. It was there that he was defeated only by the narrowest of margins. It was by luring him to a volcano with bird calls but he somehow knew that that wasn't the case and for that saw what others could not. He heard the ever so faint cries of an astrally projected child Miki echo around him even as he heard the bird calls. They were trying to trigger some kind of "conditioned response" to trick him into falling into the volcano.

The King of the Monsters grimly looked at all this. He knew full well what those worthless mammals were trying to do and he couldn't believe they were actually doing something so stupid. Part of him wanted to strike down the inferior race just to teach it that, make it suffer for all it had done and-! No… with that, the saurian walked forwards, throwing up great clouds of black dust. He walked to the very brink of the drop, disregarding Segeusa's words and soon enough the ground fell beneath him and landed with a bone jarring thud on flat feet. In the narrow, black, rocky chimney, he looked down and saw the lake of fire beneath him.

In the few days that he had had with the child, he had learned that hatred was wrong. Even if the sinners among the humans were to be punished they could not be struck down at the price of the innocent. That was the line that had always separated him from King Ghidorah and he had crossed it that day. He looked up out of the chimney at the humans at the edge and roared for them to do it. With that, bombs were detonated across the volcano and explosions raged; causing rock walls to crumble and bleed lava, the whole volcano erupted. Like the fire if Hell, and the burning ash, the searing gases, and the lava, all raged around him, causing torture unseen save for Dante. Pain, agony, suffering, as he was thrown down to the lava to be cast out and damned by the humans, to be sentenced to perpetual torment.

In a place that was not a place and in a time that was not a time, Kyle felt all this and fell to the ground screaming. Writhing in agony, he felt the torture of being burned alive for what seemed an eternity, and then he felt an even greater pain. He opened his eyes and saw miniscule… things smaller than insects in front before him. He saw one group under attack by another group of things; seeing the first group had no chance against the other, larger, group he rushed to the smaller one's aid. He protected them and was mortally injured by the other things yet he knew, he just knew, the things would help him in the hour of his need. They came to him as he lay on the ground… and they walked away from him. It was in the hour of his need, when he needed them the most and they abandoned him… they betrayed him!

That was when he saw the little things turn into little demons and then swarm all over him like maggots even as they stabbed and bit all over. In revulsion, he shook them off but when he looked up, he saw the house he grew up in destroyed along with the cemetery where his parents were buried, his school, his neighborhood, and more. They were gone and in their place were the little demons desecrating his home, spitting on it and worse. Not knowing what possessed him, Kyle felt a rage beyond anything he knew and screamed and attacked the little demons again. This time he began smashing their ant hills and stomping them beneath his feet but that was when he saw one of the tiny monsters standing to protect him.

He saw the female thing and it spoke to him; she protected him and gave him comfort. At that, Kyle knelt to the ground and cupped the little thing in his hand; she would care for him in this strange world even when nobody else would. Then the little thing turned to Miki and Martin saw Godzilla holding her and it was then that he understood. The little demons were humankind even as the group that King of the Monsters saved and was betrayed by was the Lagos Garrison. Made to feel all the beast's pain, the sting of betrayal, the shame of being hunted, the pain of losing his home, and the agony of being completely alone, Kyle felt sick inside. He realized that this was how the saurian looked at humankind and he began shaking.

And then he understood and he heard the words his grandfather once wrote about the monster.

_Nature has a way, sometimes, of reminding man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up the horrible offsprings of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in of a hurricane, a typhoon, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences. For now Godzilla, that strangely innocent and tragic monster, has gone to Earth. Whether he returns or not… or is never again seen by human eyes, the things he has taught us, remain_.

Godzilla looked around and it was then that he was shocked to see something he hadn't seen in a long time. It was a green forest, a hot, humid, steaming jungle on a tiny island—little more than a rock sticking out of the surf—somewhere in the Pacific. (A human would have looked to a map and have said that it was between islands he or she would call Kwajilin and Liat.) Godzilla saw all this and saw a clearing filled with crushed blood stained foliage and… he saw himself! The King of the Monsters saw himself as he once was when he had just awakened weak and emaciated from the sleep of ages. Thus there was the dieing Godzillasaurus, sprawled on the ferns and grass covered in burns and open wounds. His breath rasped in his chest and he felt the blood trickle down from his mouth.

Seeing his younger self, Godzilla burned with hatred as he knew what would happen next. Clad in their khaki uniforms and holding their rifles, the humans came from the jungle, the human "friends" whom he had given everything to protect and they went there to mock him. Invisible to these shadows of the past, the King of the Monsters saw them surround his younger self with their "guns" and "flags" and treachery. After he nearly died to save them, they came to betray him! But was it so? Godzilla learned it was not so because the most terrible thing that could happen to him did. In a way that he had never even managed with Miki, he understood.

"ATTENTION!" The human in command left the circle of soldiers and went towards him before turning around to face those he led. "We deeply regret that we must leave our savior behind, we pray that he will never hold it against us in his heart."

The chief human turned to face Godzillasaurus and looked him straight in the eye. Trembling and barely able to keep a voice that shouted courage over the sound of bombs and bullets for so long, he said, "Please forgive us… but we are helpless! There is nothing that we can do."

At this Godzilla saw the humans standing around his younger self and understood what was happening. These were men who had gone to Hell and back, who had suffered things no human being should ever suffer. They had not cried when they had seen their friends die, not when they heard their parents die, not when they heard that they had failed their country and that all their sacrifices had been for nothing… and they cried now.

Tears coming from a battle wearied face, their leader, Shindo, looked to Godzilla and said, "We can't carry you, we cannot take you to safety…We hope your wounds heal quickly and that you will recover full health. We the Lagos Garrison of the Japanese Army will never forget how you saved our lives! Never…"

One human went up to his leader and bowed. "The boat's leaving. Shall we present arms?"

Shindo nodded. With that boots snapped together and the Major saluted him. The cry was sounded. "Present arms!" As one, all they whose lives Godzillasaurus had saved raised their flags and presented arms to honor the one who had saved them all.

Godzilla heard and understood; he saw the humans walk away of how they would march home with honor… and he still remembered what he had heard. "We will never forget how you saved our lives." They had not betrayed him… they…

Godzilla roared at this and the world began to dissolve around him. He couldn't believe it, humans were evil; they had to be! Humans were evil and they deserved whatever punishment meted to them! Or did they? That was when the world began to solidify around Godzilla and he saw a far grimmer scene. Everything seemed to turn black and white. He saw pain and suffering everywhere as something cruel and evil had passed through. It was a Necropolis and a wasteland of desolation. It was a scene of despair that only King Ghidorah could have wrought forth. But then he heard a voice which Kyle Martin had known for a long time.

"This is Tokyo, once a city of six million people. What has happened here was caused by a force which up until a few days ago was entirely beyond the scope of man's imagination. Tokyo, a smoldering memorial to the unknown, an unknown which at this moment still prevails and could, at any moment, lash out with its terrible destruction anywhere else in the world. There were once many people here who could have told of what they saw. Now… there were only a few."

It was King Ghidorah, nobody else would be so cruel! That was when he saw a human, his human and Miki's teacher but as a young man, bleeding and dieing as he was buried. "My name is Steve Martin, I'm a foreign correspondent for United World News. I was heading for an assignment in Cairo when I stopped by in Tokyo for a social call. But it turned out to be a visit to the living Hell of another world."

When Godzilla saw that Hell he saw, people crying and dieing and suffering. "Emergency hospitals were overflowing with the maimed and the dead. For the living, the horror of last night was over. The only thought left was the paralyzing fear that it could happen again today, or tomorrow. Anyone who had survived without serious injury was helping to repair the mass of human wreckage."

That was when Godzilla saw an innocent little child that seemed to perfectly healthy but who was in fact dieing. At first he thought that it was King Ghidorah and his Taint but when he saw the humans treating the child for radiation, he knew it wasn't the demon. Japan, when an injured Martin was a half dead man, and rife with radiation… It was he who had done that…

Sick and guilty, the King of the Monsters looked at people without arms, without legs, crying for their loved ones and screaming in pain. People burned to death or covered in bandages were there, some dieing in their own filth. Innocent humans, even children, were dieing and it was his fault. Trembling inside, Godzilla heard the voice, "For some of the victims there was hope, for others there would be no tomorrow."

That was when he saw the destruction he caused with the eyes of those who had suffered it. He saw a weeping mother look up a demon and clutched the dead bodies of her children saying, "Don't worry, we'll be with you father soon." He saw a burned, trembling, baby wailing as it clutched its mother's breast. He saw a blood soaked old man moan in the rubble, a steel beam pinning down his crushed legs. Innocent people suffering by cause of a destroyer… just as his mate and pack had been. Was this then all the humans saw in Godzilla? Was this what he had become!

With that, it all stopped. The visions were ended and both Kyle and Godzilla were back in the broken streets of Manhattan. For a time, the both of them just mutely stood there and stared at one another with empty eyes, dead to the world. No sound was made save by Miki who was on her hands and knees between them. Trembling in exhaustion, she could barely stand but stand she did and looked between the two of them as they both finally understood… as did she. All their lives, the Elias had known that the Monster Wars would one day come and had prepared for that day. For that day, they had taught Miki Segeusa, the chosen one who was to save the world and this was how it was to be done because although King Ghidorah was indeed defeated once and for all this was to be the final test for which she had prepared for all her life.

She looked to one and then the other and said, "Now the both of you know. Now you know what I've been trying to tell you for so long. I love the both of you but the things the both of you have done have broken my heart—and those of so many others—for too long. Over the course of the Monster Wars, I saw you both change for the better and for a while I thought it meant that I could change the both of you but I was wrong. It's up to you to change yourselves and you must change or else the war between men and monsters will just start over again. Both of you once stood with heroes but you both abandoned justice for vengeance when someone you loved died."

Steadying herself, Miki craned her head upwards and looked to the towering King of the Monsters. "Godzilla listen to me, you're a warrior, a fighter, and because of that you've seen death many times. Tell me then, did Gigantis's death keep you from avenging her?"

The monster's feet crashed to the ground and he roared. NO!

Miki's face was grave and haunting and filled with infinite sadness. "Now that you have avenged her, now that you have your revenge, has it brought her back? Did Ghidorah's death change anything?"

Stunned, the monster made no move as he listened to the human's question. The answer? No…

"So King Ghidorah's death didn't change anything," said the psychic. "Those deaths changed nothing. Did your own?"

Godzilla still remembered the pain and agony when he was "killed" by the oxygen destroyer and how the same bitterness and hatred that had been there afterward was there after. Did even his own change anything? …no…

With that, Miki Segeusa whipped around to face Kyle and she had the same piercing look in her eyes. She looked at him and asked, "Kyle Martin, listen to me. You have been on the front lines of war for too many years and you've seen the destruction and suffering that both sides can cause. You've seen people die like Godzilla has so tell me, did your brother's death keep you from doing everything you deemed necessary to safeguard the innocent?"

With indignation, he yelled, "NO!"

She looked at him eye to eye and asked "During the course of the Monster Wars you almost did kill Godzilla with your Toxin. If not for Kong protecting him and my pleas you would have let him die. You were close enough to know the answer so would have Godzilla's death brought back your brother; would it have changed anything?"

He looked at her and wearily said, "No."

With eyes that burned into his soul, she asked, "Would my own death have kept you from getting your precious revenge?"

He covered his face and with a voice barely more than whimper, he said, "…no…"

Miki looked to one and then the other and said to them in loud voice, "Don't either of you two get it? We were only able to beat King Ghidorah by working together but if the war between our kinds starts again, if we give in to hate, it'll just keep going until we destroy each other. You know what that means? That'll mean that Ghidorah wins."

Her voice choked up. "You know that that's not the only path, I've seen into your hearts and know it. Both of you understand, both of you let yourselves be driven by thoughts of vengeance and it caused nothing but a cycle of further vengeance. Both of you know the truth. Death isn't the answer, life is. Hate isn't the answer, love is. Then I say both of you; break the cycle, let him go…"

With that, a harsh, judgmental look came across her face, a look of condemnation. "Let each other go because if you don't… then both of you are no better than Ghidorah. Is that what you want?"

The both of them heard her and understood. Kyle Martin heard… and he fell to his knees and silently began to cry. As for Godzilla, did he understand? If he was asked, his tears would answer for him.

Malice and cruelty and wickedness… that was where the path of hatred had brought them, such hate that they was no better than Ghidorah. Both of Kyle and Godzilla knew that and the both of them felt it break their hearts. With that, the scalier one among them turned around to weakly trod the broken streets and head towards the sea. Absorbed in such remorseful thoughts, he was walking past the shattered skyscrapers of what had once been the financial district when he felt several explosions strike his side. Looking past the towers mown down to less than one hundred feet, Godzilla didn't understand; Ghidorah was dead who had done that to him. With that unobstructed view, he first looked to his smoking side and then right and left, up and down… down.

He looked down and saw the humans swarming around their weapons preparing them to fire yet again and it was not only they, but many other humans were aiming their weapons. They, the humans would betray him after he gave everything to save them? They would turn on him! Baring his fangs in anger and hatred, he let his spines flare red and let yellow electricity arc from spine to spine. He roared and a red glow and a red ionized gas came from his mouth; the humans were no different that before! He would make the human scum suffer!

All through the human camp, men and women fearfully aimed their weapons at their enemy. While the first shot may have been an unintentional one fired in panic, now that their mortal enemy showed his true colors, the humans knew he was no different than before! Even after they risked their lives to save him, he would turn on them? The fighting men and women there aimed their assault rifles and tank turrets and howitzer barrels and rocket launchers to attack. Godzilla was a freak, a monster that deserved die, wasn't he!

Both sides aimed their wrath at each other, each side unwilling to accept the existence of the other and instead choosing to fight until the other was destroyed. Or were they?

In the underground UN Base, Commander Aso looked to the images of this broadcast onto the main screen and he and Goodhue turned to face each other. For the first time in his life, the monster hunter didn't know what to do; part of him wanted to let Godzilla go but part of him did not. He looked to the floor and then up and behind him to Secretary General Santos. The king of the world looked down at him to smile and nod; with that, though it was one of the most difficult choices he would ever have to make, Aso knew what to do.

Commander Aso, punched the override codes for the communication systems on the keyboard in front of him then brought the microphone at his station to his lips. "This is Aso, I repeat, this is Aso, Supreme Commander of all Earth forces engaged against King Ghidorah or any other monster that is part of the Monster Wars."

The UN forces held their weapons tight and heard their leader's voice over the headsets in their helmets. "To all forces in the New York City theater of war, stand down. Lower your weapons and let Godzilla go."

As for the monster he saw the humans… who had struck in fear and ignorance, not malice and hatred. He on the other hand would have lashed out with loathing in his heart but no more. He closed his mouth and his spines ceased to glow because for from that day onwards, he would kill no more. As for the humans, they saw the monster… who had only reacted in self defense and with what he had done just now had done more than perhaps they would have. Obeying their orders, every last soldier there lowered his or her weapon for if there was to be more killing, it would not begin with them. Neither would attack the other and both let the other go.

Both sides walked away and as they did so, one man saw this and he couldn't understand. "I don't get it," said Kyle. "We humans… created Godzilla…and ever since, we've tried to destroy him. But then why! Why is it that after everything we've done to him, he came back to protect us?"

Miki Segeusa looked at the King of the Monsters as he walked through in between the skyscrapers; she watched from the streets where she wearily stood; she then looked to the man she loved. As the darkened night sky turned to light, as the cold of the late February night turned to warmth, she saw he was trembling and confused inside and so she put her hand on his shoulder to reassure him; she did so and he stopped shaking. "It's because deep down inside Godzilla, there was always a hero, and it was a hero that was shone through in those that gave their all in the Monster Wars. If Godzilla came, it's because he lives inside each one of us."

She and Kyle stayed in each other's arms for a time before she slipped from his grasp and walked a bit away. She still remembered that night, a year ago, that she dreamt that the Elias came before her and had told her that she was the chosen one, the one brought forth to save the world. Now Miki knew that she was the chosen one and as the one, since the world was saved and the peace was won, there was only one thing left to do. With that she stretched out her arm and held out her hand; closing her eyes, she concentrated.

As for Godzilla, he was walking past the debris of the Manhattan's Financial District towards Battery Park. Yet it was as his foot touched cold water that something happened; a strange, tiny, broken, metallic device imbedded in the back of his neck began to shake and shake as psychic energies worked around it. It was the ESP amplifier of Project Telepathy, the other Project T, that had been fired there. It shook and shook until it fell and tumbled out and with that, Godzilla gave a slight roar. He turned around to face Miki, his friend, his only friend who after everything he had done, had never stopped loving him. He turned around to face her tiny frame so far, far away to nod and then… he smiled. Segeusa saw this and smiled too. She turned around to look at Kyle who hugged her close to him and she hugged him back.

The Monster Wars were finally over but whether they watched it from their television at home or as soldiers on the front lines or on a mammoth screen in a UN Bunker, there was still one thing that bothered people, all people everywhere. While they were all indeed grateful to Godzilla for what he had done for them, they all asked themselves something. One group of people asking themselves this mystery question was the crew of Land MOGUERA.

Dwarfed by the colossal bulk of their ruined war machine, Glen, Fuji, and Captain Tomas Santos stood on their mighty tank and saw Godzilla go into Upper New York Bay. Glen paced the distance of the twisted, broken vehicle and knew they weren't going to pilot it for a long time. As he pondered that, he wondered about something. Jumping down from where he was, he landed several feet down to the metal plane his commanding officer was, balancing the while. He walked towards the captain and said, "Captain, I wanna ask you something."

Not turning around to look at him, the Secretary General's son kept his eyes focused on the King of the Monsters. "Yeah Glen, what is it?"

"It's just that… I mean, I know this is going to sound crazy but… do you, do you really think Godzilla knew he was saving us?"

Captain Santos turned around but before he could get one word in he was cut off by a voice he did not hear and could not be heard by anyone. What he heard was this. 

**YES YOUNG ONES. MY SON, DRACO PALADIN, KNEW THAT IN DOING BATTLE AGAINST DRACO CEREBRUS, THAT HE WOULD SAVE ALL YOUR LIVES; IN THE END, THAT REASON ABOVE ALL OTHERS WAS WHY HE FOUGHT. I AM KNOWN BY MANY NAMES, DRACO DEUS, THE GREAT DRAGON, THE GREAT TYRANNOSAUR, THE PRIME SAURIAN, LEVIATHAN, THE FATHER OF WYRMS, THE OLD SNAKE AND MORE. I SPEAK TO YOU BY MY POWER TO ANSWER THAT WHICH SO MANY OF YOU ASK: GODZILLA WAS FIGHTING TO SAVE YOU. HE FOUGHT FOR THAT AND FOR MIKI SEGEUSA, THE ONLY HUMAN THAT EVER LOVED HIM. TO YOU THEN MIKI, THANK YOU. SO PLEASE, OH INHABITERS OF THIS WORLD, IN GOD'S NAME, SHOULD EARTH LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER CENTURY, PLEASE REMEMBER WHAT GODZILLA DID FOR YOU AND FOR THIS PLANET YOU LIVE ON.**


	18. Chapter 18

Epilogue

All over the world there was joy and jubilation and laughter. In the underground, underwater capital city of Mu, people gave hymns of unadulterated joy as the temple dancers and snake men priests stood before their god Manda, Manda who looked to his son Quetzalcoatl who, though injured, was alive and at last returned to him; in Moscow, crowds across the city danced as sound trucks left the ruined Kremlin, blaring the joyous news; in New Delhi people crowded around a cab listened to the radio and wept openly; in Australia, ragged people shouted and sang before the Sydney Opera House; and in Tokyo, there were ticker tape parades and the pouring of champagne and mad love. Everywhere, people celebrated as the sun shone once more and the world was at peace again at last, at long last, the Monster Wars were finally over. People all over the world knew this because at long last the sun shone bright and warm upon them, at last cool showers came to wash the blood of war away, because at last flowers bloomed and the trees gave shoot and because the world seemed to shine. They knew because Secretary General Miguel Santos addressed them by radio and television to speak to them and they listened.

_My fellow people of Earth, King Ghidorah is dead. Yes, King Ghidorah, the Star of Doom, the Bane of Life, the Prince of Skyllans, the three-headed monster is dead and that means the Monster Wars are won. He has wrought much suffering and much destruction across the world but the buildings he has torn down, we will rebuild. The fields he has upturned, we will replant. And so although there still lies before us the great task of repairing what has been broken, we can allow ourselves this moment of celebration. Perhaps, no words can better describe what we feel than those said by Winston Churchill, First Minister to King George IV of Britain with the final victory of the forces of good at the end of the Great World War. ___

_"This is your victory, it is no victory of any party or of any class, it is a victory of the great British nation as a whole. We were all alone for almost a whole year. Did anyone want to give in? Were we down-hearted? The lights went out and the bombs came down. But every man, woman and child in this country had no thought of giving up the struggle. London could take it. So we came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of Hell, while all the world wondered.__ I say that in the long years to come not only will the people of this island but of the world__, wherever the bird of freedom chirps in human hearts, people will look back to what we have done and say: 'don't despair. Don't yield to violence and tyranny. March forward and die, if need be, unconquered'." ___

_At the dawn of the Monster Wars, I said we could win and we did win. We had to work together or we would die so we worked together and we lived._

Two people who did not hear those words were on Coney Island, where the old roller coasters and slides stood derelict, telling the world of old times and old memories. Kyle's father had once been to that place of cotton candy and illicit entertainment as a child, much the chagrin of his own no-nonsense father. For the longest time, it had been a place of games, nonsense, and amusement; that had mostly ended when the Rhedosaurus had made its last stand there, fighting and dying amidst a flaming roller coaster. After the big battle there, Coney Island had never really recovered. But now all that was forgotten as there was where another dinosaur monster, one far greater made his closing bow. Kyle and Miki had taken a ferry there hoping to keep Godzilla in sight as long as possible; they were there, walking on the beach and watching the waves wash on the sandy shore. They walked, holding hands and shivering amidst the chill of the pre-dawn air. Walking along the dew wet sand grass, they were cold, but they didn't care because as they reached the walkway they saw him… and they saw him amidst the first rays of the sun's first light.

Already up to his waist in the waters of New York Harbor the King of the Monsters kept wading forwards. He was tired, more tired than he though was possible; however, he'd soon be in deep enough water to dive and beneath the seas he would rest. And after he would rest, he would then go and search for his friend and brother, Anguirus; the Great Tyrannosaur had said that Anguirus was among the living for he was not dead. If not dead, then the Supersaur was only sleeping and Godzilla intended to find him and wake him up. No, it was not over, nothing was ever over.

For now however, as his breath was seen in the chilly dawn air, he thought. He thought of how for so long he had made war against the humans for having "usurped" his world and of how the dinosaurs themselves came to rule by the Triassic extinction. The Cambrian—the Age of Insects—had had to end for the dinosaurs to come for such had been the will of the Great Tyrannosaur. And yet… If a survivor of the previous cycle were to have appeared in the Mesozoic on a mission of vengeance saying that he had been there first, wouldn't Godzilla have fought to protect his home? He would have, even as the humans fought to protect the world that was now theirs. And if there were justice in his heart, Godzilla would have chosen to share the Mesozoic world with the survivor, just as the humans now shared their world with him.

Though it had taken him 65,000,000 years to accept it, Godzilla finally acknowledged that the age of dinosaurs was ended and that it was the mammals turn to rule. And while he knew that it was a strange new world that it would take him who knows how long to understand he also knew that if even just one in a million among the humans was like his Miki, then he knew that they would guard this Earth well.

As Miki and Kyle saw all this, they wondered. Kyle looked to the rising sun and asked, "So now it's finally over, eh?"

"Against King Ghidorah, yes."

The blonde kaijuologist looked up and saw the last fading stars. "King Ghidorah… he's dead now. But what the hell was he?"

Miki looked downwards. Hers was a bleeding heart, hers was a soul that would weep for anybody, even a monster. "He was a creature created without love. All his creators ever taught him was hate and thus hate was the only thing he could ever know."

She looked up at the stars and wondered if it was really over. She looked at the universe and remembered all that she had seen. "King Ghidorah is dead but what of the other skyllans? The Hedorahs, the Gigans, the Orgas, all the space monsters… and the ghidra? His children are out there and some are already here on earth; the dorat swarms a threat. The skyllans are a threat to the galaxy and space is polluted with them. If we're not careful, we can expect another giant space monster real soon. Maybe the fight with King Ghidorah was just the beginning and if so, then the demon was a warning to mankind."

The psychic and the kaijuologist thought about that and were troubled. Looking at each other, they were worried but then Kyle shook his head and smiled. "If more space monsters come, then they lose. They'll all lose because we have Godzilla on our side."

Miki smiled and cuddled against him. With that hope for a better future, Kyle and Miki walked hand and hand as they saw Godzilla head out to open sea. Yet as they did so, Martin mysteriously stopped and froze; worried, Miki looked to him and asked, "Kyle, are you alright? Do you feel ok?"

It was with that that all of a sudden, Kyle pulled away from Miki and began running. He ran along the shoreline and into the ocean; there he kept going, half running and half swimming until he was knee deep in the water, there he looked at Godzilla and raised his fist. "Damn it you monster, come back here! I still have something to settle with you!"

Somehow, the saurian was able to hear and he turned his head back and roared out, a smug smirking roar.

Ever since his brother's death, Kyle had learned many things. He had learned to hate, to love, to win, to lose, and now he learned the last thing. The last thing, which was how to forgive. Returning the smirk, a smug Kyle Martin said, "See you again someday, Godzilla."

Catching up to him, Miki could hardly believe what she had just heard. Had monster hater number one actually said what she had thought she'd heard him say? She placed a tentative hand on his shoulder and asked, "Kyle, did you really mean what you said, that you no longer consider Godzilla you're enemy?"

The two of them, knee deep in the ocean surf, they held hands and Kyle said, "Miki, the two of us are peas in a pod. I grew up hearing stories about that dinosaur from my father, my brother, and my grandfather. My whole childhood was about becoming a kaijuologist and following in my father's footsteps… and I did. All my life, I never knew about anything but Godzilla and I never got it… until now."

With that, Miki covered her one true with a warm embrace for she was filled with happiness. "Man and dragon reunited, the old bonds broken in Eden made whole once more."

Kyle saw the smile on her face and said, "You're happy. I have something that will make you even happier."

She was confused and taken aback. "I don't understand, what do you mean?"

"This." With that, Kyle got down on one knee and pulled something out from his pocket. He opened his hand to reveal a ring and then looked to her and smiled. She knew what this meant.

Trembling for a time as she saw this, Miki began to cry. Throwing her arms around Kyle, she cried, "Yes! Oh yes!"

The two of them shared a kiss by the last moonlight and an embrace by the first sunlight. They turned east to the ocean and saw the sun coming over the horizon. Godzilla was swimming away into it, a sunrise framed by a rainbow. Holding each other, the pair knew that the rainbow was a divine promise; it was God's sign, His covenant of hope. The age of vengeance had ended and the age of mercy had begun.

It was quite literally the dawn of a new day.


End file.
